Code Geass Return Trips
by phantom daniel
Summary: Lelouch has jumped back in time mentally 9 times already. He doesn't know why and at this 10th time doesn't really mind anymore. There have been some to jump back with him so he has had company. Suck at summaries. Should be interesting so read on.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A Once upon nightmare revisited

**Alright this is my first fanfiction story. I had toyed with the idea of my first story to be for another show but decided on code geass when I read other code geass fanfiction and just had to write my own. **

**The setting for this story is an AU and that he has gone back in time mentally multiple times already and just does things his way while at the same time screwing his enemies over time and time again while gathering those that he cares about around himself and protecting them.**

"**speech" , '**_**thought'**_

**~ CO ~ CO ~ Cornelia centered point of view**

**~ L ~ L ~ Lelouch centered point of view**

**~ O ~ O ~ Omniscient (3****rd**** person) point of view**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass or any of its characters. This story is only for entertainment purposes and all rights are reserved to the creators of Code Geass and the company that owns it.**

**May Tuesday 3, 2010**

**Pendragon, st. Darwin street, Aeries Villa**

It is the year 2010 a.t.b. On this cool May evening we find ourselves in Pendragon, the capital of the Holy Britannian Empire. On the street of St. Darwin we find Aeries Villa the newest ancestral home of the vi Britannia line of the royal family. It is home to Emperor Charles zi Britannia's favorite wife Empress-consort Marianne vi Britannia. Ever since Emperor Charles zi Britannia took the throne, Britannia has been steadily taking control of the world and today it controls' almost 1/3 of the world.

Back to the Aeries Villa as it has been designated as the home for the vi Britannia line of the royal family which at the moment only has three members. The head of the family is one Empress-consort Marianne vi Britannia. She is also known as Marianne "the flash" for her work on knightmares, robotic automatons built to be fighting machines to replace classic military weaponry, and the knight of six of the knights of the round. She is a slim figured woman with black hair that reaches down to her waist and usually found wearing a hoop dress of varying light colors. She was a common born soldier that rose to her rank among the knights of the round and then later went on to marry the Emperor much to the chagrin of the rest of the royal court.

The next member of the vi Britannia royal family line is Nunnally vi Britannia. At the age of 8 years old it makes her the youngest member of the family of the vi Britannia branch. She is a joyful and fun loving little girl with brown hair done in pigtails with blue eyes. She is always going about in the gardens of the house and learning all she can about the world around her. She spends most of her time with her two favorite siblings. Her half-sister Euphimia li Britannina, third princess of the holy Britaninan Empire and her brother. Her brother is also the last member of the vi Britannia household.

Lelouch vi Britannia, Eleventh prince of the Holy Britannian Empire.

He is the 10 year old prince with ebony black hair and deep rich royal purple eyes. Although he is physically inferior to his other siblings and generally uninterested in any form of physical activity, he has been declared as a genius only surpassed by his father the Emperor and his older brother, Schneizel el Britannia the second prince of the Holy Britannian Empire. He is also considered one of the best chess players in the world only unable to beat his father the Emperor and his older brother Schneizel. Although he is one of the world's top minds at such a young age he is also one of the laziest prince's.

It is the eleventh prince we find tonight in Aeries Villa in his room on the second floor in the east wing of the palace. It is a large room with a large bed across from the entrance of the room. From the entrance of the room to the left there is a large window that oversees the gardens of the palace that have been acknowledged as one of the most beautiful in the empire. Next to the window there is a table for two with a chess board set on the table with worn pieces that will soon be replaced. To the right of the room are two sets of doors. The doors that was closer to the entrance of the room leads to the prince's bathroom that is fairly large by normal standards. While the door's closest to the other side of the room are to his closet that is full of his clothes. Behind the prince's bed are his favorite books ranging from classics like _The Count of Monte Cristo_ or _Les Miserable_and books given to him like the books given to him from his brother Schneizel that compare's chess games to war tactics.

On his bed we find the prince tossing and turning on his bed. One might think that he is having a bad dream and can't settle down to sleep peacefully but if one pays close attention to him as he slowly starts to stop moving they would notice a slight red outline surrounding his body. He slowly starts to sit up on his bed and opens his royal purple eyes and surveys his room. As he starts to take in the room that he is in he says four words that summarize the thoughts running through his mind.

"Here we go again."

That's right, even though the prince is only ten years old on this night of all nights the mentality of the prince that has lived these past ten years is lost and is replaced by the consciousness of Lelouch vi Britannia the demon Emperor. He has been forced to repeat his life ten times already making him mentally older than most. After his first 'death' at the hands of his 'friend' he has been repeating his life over and over again from the same starting point after each time he dies. He has tried different ways to change this even including trying different scenarios of living his life and even taking either V.V., his uncle, or C.C.'s code until the end of time. After each death that happened to him he would just wake up on the same night that everything had started.

As Lelouch gets out of bed he notices his clothes and thinks '_damn, forgot she likes to dress me in frills around this time. Oh well that'll change tomorrow._'

He goes over to his closet to pick something out with less frills because he already knows that there is no chance of finding something without frills in his closet at the moment. So he heads towards he knows is his least hated shirt because it has the least frills. It is a black button up shirt with only frills at the wrists. He promptly searches and finds scissors and cuts off the frills.

**Kitchen**

Downstairs in the kitchen he prepares himself a simple sandwich all the while thinking '_It should be almost 4 in the morning by now. Cornelia will find her soon enough and send someone for me._'

With an annoyed look upon his face he carefully went about cleaning off the crumbs from his face in a regal manner as he thinks about how his latest death came at the hands of that annoying witch. '_I make one comment on how she might have gotten a little pudgy after a round in bed and she decides to shoot me in the head. You would think I would have learned after the last few hundred years to not say anything about that. Damn annoying witch, just for that I am going to give you a punishment in this timeline C.C. and I already got the perfect one in mind._'

As Lelouch finished eating with grace that was unnatural to find in a child of his age a guard came running into the kitchen. When he spots the prince sitting at the table in a disturbingly graceful way he thought '_that's just creepy… oh right her highness._'

"My prince something terrible has happened."

As Lelouch looks over the guard in an analytical way a small smirk plays on his lips. '_Show time already mother, uncle? Well whatever, this body is already getting tired anyways._'

"Lead the way" Lelouch tells the soldier and he notices that the soldier is feeling a little uncomfortable with the way he is acting. This only causes Lelouch to smirk even more in a sinister way that screams that he is enjoying how he is making the soldier feel uncomfortable until they enter the foyer and he spots his mother's body which causes him to instantly scowl. He then turns his face into an impassive mask but also takes notice of Cornelia looking in his direction with a puzzled look on her face like she can't understand what she just saw.

~ CO ~ CO ~CO ~ CO ~CO ~CO ~ CO ~ CO ~CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~

**Foyer**

Cornelia li Britannia is the 20 year old purple haired violet eyed third princess of the Britannian Empire. She is also not your average everyday fairytale princess. She does not sit back and wait for prince charming to come to her rescue or spend her days siting there in her palace doing nothing but look pretty for him.

No.

She is a soldier.

She fights for what she believes in and in earning her own recognition and not ride on the recognition of her father for the rest of her life like some of the other members of the royal family. The person she strives to be like, who showed to everyone that women could be knights in their own right, is her idol Empress-consort Marianne. Ever since she was a child and told Lady Marianne that she would one day become the chief general the Empress had been helping her every step of the way. She helped Cornelia from convincing her mother to allow her to go to the military academy and enroll, in the dreaded years spent with the dreaded NonetteEnneagram and her perverted ways and up to the day that she was chosen to be the captain of Lady Marianne's royal guard. To her there was no greater honor than having the faith of the person that she admires to have faith in her abilities.

So when Lady Marianne told her to move the royal guard from the house proper it baffled her as to why she would lessen the protection of her family and wonder if she perhaps had lost faith in her ability to choose good soldiers to guard them. When she expressed her concerns to Lady Marianne she simply told her "don't worry dear, we'll be fine. It's just for tonight and I doubt the children will notice. Let's also not forget that I was a knight of the rounds, so I think I can manage one night without the protection of the guards. I just feel like having some privacy tonight is all. Go on, spend some time with little Euphie. She's missed you, what with you being so busy all the time."

After that Cornelia did go spend time with her sister but still couldn't quite let it go that she felt that something was going to go wrong. At quarter after three in the morning her fears were realized. One of the guards that she had left to guard the perimeter of Aeries Villa heard something from the house and when the soldier went to investigate what it was they found Lady Marianne had been gunned down with Nunnally in her arms bleeding. As soon as she heard what had happened, she rushed right over to the Aeries Villa and saw for herself that Lady Marianne had indeed been gunned down.

'_How could this happen. There is no way for anyone to get in here without being noticed by someone. Could it have been terrorists that did this? They would have to have been backed by some high level person in society from the E.U. or the Chinese federation that wanted the Emperor's best soldier out of the picture. If it was that then it is more likely that it was an assassin from the E.U. from all of missions that she did in the war against them. Oh god what about Lelouch, is he safe? Does he know? What should I tell him? He won't take this well. God I hope he doesn't do something stupid like demand answers from father_.' Was what Cornelia was thinking and going round and round in her mind.

As Cornelia was doing that and descending into curses and promising retribution to the ones responsible for what happened here tonight a soldier was coming into the room and announced the arrival of another member of the royal family.

"Presenting his Highness, Prince Lelouch vi Britannia, Eleventh prince of the Holy Britannian Empire."

As the soldier announces her younger brothers arrival to the scene of his mother's murder all the color leaves her face as she turns to see him enter the foyer. When she sees her brother's face as he enters the room she notices that he had a smirk on his face while looking at the soldier like he was playing with him but then when he turned to see the body his mother still on the floor bleeding and Nunnally being taken to the hospital his face turned into a scowl that was directed more towards were his mother lay but more in a way that suggested that he didn't like her more than displeased with what happened to her. He then quickly schooled his features into an impassive mask that could rival even that of their father's when she was sure he was more expressive than what he was showing at the moment. It also leaves Cornelia confused as to why he is acting like this.

'_What's wrong with him? He looked like he was having fun doing something to the soldier that was with him but as soon as he saw Lady Marianne's body he looked almost like he didn't like her but that can't be. Worse I can't get a read on his emotions with emotionless mask of his. Maybe it's too much for him to handle?_'

~ L ~ L~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~

'_Oh joy, lookie what we have here, its mother dearest..._' Lelouch thought sarcastically while looking at her _"… Or at least her body is. You'd think after all these replays I would have forgiven her by now but every time I see her all I can think about is how she abandoned us. Well whatever, I don't have to deal with her for another 7 years. Well whatever, time to go back to bed._'

As Lelouch walked past his mother's body with an interested look on his face, he remembers to ask about someone that is absent from the foyer. "Where's Alstreim?"

"The girl that was sent here for etiquette training your highness?" a soldier questions.

"Yes" he responds.

"Lord Bismark, knight of one, came to retrieve her for his majesty your highness." The soldier responded.

"I see. That will be all." he answers and continues to climb the stairs. As he passes Cornelia she asks him "Where are you going Lelouch?" as though she can't believe he is acting the way he is. He looks over his shoulder towards her and sees in her eyes that she doesn't understand why he is acting like that. He looks forward and as he starts to walk again he tells her "going to bed, what else?" As he left he couldn't help but smirk as he could tell everyone in the foyer was looking at him incredulously because they couldn't believe he was acting so cold to what happened to his family.

~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~

As Lelouch walked back towards his room Cornelia was staring at him like he was a complete stranger to her.

'_What the hell is wrong with him?! He doesn't even look like he cares what happened to his sister and mother. What's going on in that mind of yours Lelouch?_' Cornelia thought. She then noticed the way the other people in the foyer were looking at the callous way her brother was treating the whole affair. She couldn't have any of this getting out to the rest of the family because they will try to use it as a reason to have him removed as an heir so she quickly said "It seems that the death of my brother's mother has affected him. No one mention anything about it. You Guilford…" Cornelia pointed to Guilford "find out what happened. I want the ones responsible for this caught and killed for this treasonous act against the Empires best knight."

"Yes your highness" Guilford answered with conviction.

Cornelia then turns and heads to Lelouch's room to find out what is going on with him. As she enters his room she notices that he is not in bed but instead at his game table moving some of the pieces about on the board but in ways that are not allowed in a normal game of play. As she was about to reprimand him for the callous way that he was acting downstairs only moments ago; he cut her off.

~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~

**Lelouch's Room**

Lelouch raised his hand as a gesture to his sister to hold her tongue for the moment. Meanwhile he is thinking '_sure you get to leave like nothing has happened and be unconcerned for those you leave behind mother and leave me to deal with everything else. I'm going to make sure C.C. sends some very disturbing things for you to see just you wait. Now I need to deal with Cornelia._'

"What is it Cornelia?" Lelouch asks her.

"What's wrong with you Lelouch? Your acting like you couldn't care less about what's happened. Lady Marianne is dead and you haven't even asked about Nunnally." Cornelia practically yells at him. She then continues "and here I find you playing with your blasted board game instead of being by Nunnally's side. Tell me Lelouch, why are you acting like this!"

'_Whoa, forgot how loud she can get_' Lelouch thought as he answers "because I already know who did it and it won't do any good to fret and worry when there's nothing I can do about it."

'_What?! He knows what happened to Lady Marianne?_' Cornelia thought.

"What do you mean you know what happened? Did you see who did this?" Cornelia asked him.

"Why it was the terrorists of course" Lelouch responded in a way that had Cornelia thinking that he was lying to her. "or at least that's what the Emperor is going to say is what happened" he finished in a smug way like he knew what it is their father is going to say about the entire affair.

'_He's lying. He does know what happened_' Cornelia thought. "Lelouch if you-" Cornelia started slowly but was again interrupted by Lelouch.

"The truth is a far more dangerous thing than you need to know" Lelouch started ominously "If you wish to still know the truth behind the royal families deepest darkest history you will have to be willing to pay me a price." Lelouch tells her in such a way that she thinks it might be better to leave now and remain ignorant of this supposed truth. '_No. I am a soldier first and what happened here must be brought to light and the ones responsible brought to justice. No matter what the price it is._'

"Name your price" Cornelia tells him.

'_Prefect' _Lelouch thought as his famous maniacal smirk from his other life's graced his lips for the first time on this young body and it sends shivers down Cornelia's spine like she is making a deal with a demon. "The price my dear Cornelia is your life" Lelouch states as he points to the other chair in front of him. "You will become mine to do with as I see fit. If you accept close the door and sit down."

'_What the hell?! He's messing around with me. I am not going to play along with him anymore. Like hell I'm going to swear myself to my 10 year old brother for information that might not even be real._' Cornelia thought and as she was turning to leave and had one hand on the door handle, Lelouch said one more thing to her.

"Before you decide to leave" Lelouch starts and Cornelia freezes wondering how Lelouch knew she was leaving without looking in her direction and what he might say to try and convince her to stay and saw him relax into a pose with one arm on the armrest with the palm on his chin and looking like the picture of high nobility languidly and cockiness. "The same person that was here tonight will be going after dear sweet Euphemia next" Lelouch says as if it was simply a fact.

With that last statement alone though has Cornelia frozen in place with cold sweats upon her and all color leaving her face. Slowly her face turns from that of shock to that of one of pure horror at her brother's statement that her precious little sister could be in danger. She turns her head because she is still frozen at that spot by the door to look at Lelouch who is still not facing her and in a small weak voice she asks "What?"

"Hmm, you say something Cornelia?" Lelouch asks as he moves a piece on his chess board in the same position while thinking '_Oh Cornelia, for dear sweet Euphemia you will do anything to ensure that she remains safe…_' Lelouch then smirks evilly because of his next thought '_…your mine._'

Suddenly Cornelia yells out "What do you mean they will go after my sister! How do I know you're not lying to right know to get me to do what you want! Or that you are the one behind what happ-"

"**You will hold your tongue Cornelia li Britannia or you will lose it!**" Lelouch yelled cutting her off in a voice that scared her for a moment because it reminded her of their father.

He then said in a calmer tone "Next time think before you let your temper get the better of you woman. What reason do I have to lie to you that will not get me what I want if it is revealed so easily? I may not care what happens to that woman but never try to insinuate that I would do something like that to Nunnally. I would sooner die then willingly let my sister come to harm. I care infinitely more about Nunnally than you could ever care about Euphemia so don't you dare speak blasphemy in front of me. **Say something like that again and you will not be forgiven Cornelia**" Lelouch tells her with a dark tone that tells her to do as she is told and not cross him.

'_Well that certainly was something new. I don't remember her accusing me of causing the events of this night before. I'll ask C.C. later_' Lelouch thought before starting again in a calmer tone.

"Now as I was saying, the choice is yours: leave and remain ignorant of the truth and watch Euphemia die in 7 years or stay and listen to the truth that will forever change the way you view the world with the only price being that you will become mine" Lelouch says giving her the ultimatum of leaving and probably never learn the truth as far as she knows or staying and becoming his to do with as he pleases and learn the supposed dark hidden secret of the royal family.

'_If I stay I would be essentially handing my life to my brother for information that might not be credible or leaving and potentially risking Euphemia's life_' Cornelia thought.

Cornelia stood there not knowing what to do for the longest time. Then after a long time that Lelouch spent idly moving pieces on his board, Cornelia slowly closed the door and slowly made her way to the chair to sit across from Lelouch.

"Alright I'm listening" Cornelia says as she sits down.

"Swear yourself" Lelouch says, his eyes still on his chess board.

"What? Why?" Cornelia asks looking at Lelouch like she couldn't believe he just said that, and if he knows the full ramifications of what he just told her to do. Swearing oneself to someone is something that is not taken lightly and if one breaks their oath after they have sworn themselves it is considered the ultimate disgrace. That is something Cornelia would not want to happen to herself.

Lelouch finally looks up at her in the eyes and Cornelia suddenly feels like she is looking into the eyes of someone far wiser than herself who has seen more hardship and despair than anyone person should ever have to see and live through and not go mad.

He then says to her without breaking eye contact "Swear yourself to me Cornelia. Pledge that you will always serve me and act in my interest above all others in whatever means that I want and that your life belongs to me and can do whatever I want with it. I know you Cornelia. When you give your word, you will not break it because it would go against everything that you stand for and leave you a woman without any morals. You will not be able to live with yourself. I have been betrayed before and I will not have it from someone that I care about" Lelouch tells her and she can see it in his eyes that what he is saying is the truth and she can also see that he really is jaded to the point that he cannot trust people without having something over them that will also destroy them which makes her wonder how it is possible for him to be so jaded if only earlier that day he was trusting of those he knew.

Hesitantly she says "I-I pledge myself, Cornelia li Britannia, second princess of the Holy Britannian Empire, to you Lelouch vi Britannia, eleventh prince of the Holy Britannian Empire, and give my life to you to do with as you please and to serve you to the best of my abilities."

Lelouch scrutinizes her for a moment to see if she is lying to him before he smirks and leans back in his seat.

"Good, seems that this time round, I won't need to worry about what to do with you" Lelouch says which continues to puzzle Cornelia.

'_What the hell is wrong with him? First he makes me swear myself onto him and now he's acting as if he were an adult and has done this before_' Cornelia thought. "What do you mean 'this time around'?" Cornelia asks. To her it almost sounds like he is talking about another life.

"Where do you stand on the mystical tings in the world Cornelia my dear?" Lelouch asks instead.

Cornelia is miffed at the evasive question but answers anyway "I don't really put much stock in those cheap gimmicks. What does this have to do with what happened and what you said earlier about Euphie?!" Cornelia demanded.

"Calm yourself my dear. It has everything to do with it, and believe me not all mystical things are gimmicks. What if I were to tell you that there is such a thing as immortality?" Lelouch continues.

"I'd say that you've been spending too much time around our sisters" Cornelia snarls back at him.

"Normally I would have agreed but unfortunately I can no longer say that" Lelouch says with a small sigh.

"What do you mean?" Cornelia says, sensing that they are finally getting somewhere.

"What happened here tonight was the doing of one selfish immortal called V.V." Lelouch tells her.

"…are you insane?" Cornelia asks while she gets closer to get a better look at him.

"No. I don't believe so" Lelouch says and thinks while mentally chuckling '_no matter how many times I tell her that is her go to response_'

"I wonder if you know about the Emperor's family history before us." Lelouch asks her.

"Of course; the 97th Emperor was his father and countess zi Britannia his mother. Only child of the zi Britannia line" she says the simplified version of the Emperor's life.

"Wrong. He was not an only child" Lelouch states as fact. Cornelia only looks at him as if he is insane after all.

"Lelouch all the records say that father was an only child" Cornelia says.

"Who do think has control of the records?" Lelouch asks her like it is the most obvious thing in the world. "The Emperor erased the existence of his older brother so that no one would ask about him and had anyone that knew about him dealt with his own way" Lelouch tells her.

"And why would father do something like that for his dead older brother?" Cornelia asks him.

"Because he isn't dead" Lelouch reveals like it was an everyday occurrence to him which it probably was but she doesn't need to know that.

"Are you trying to say that this nonexistent uncle of ours is responsible for what happened tonight and that he will try to do the same with Euphie?" Cornelia says with a raised eyebrow and questioning tone not believing what her brother was saying.

'_He has been spending too much time around those sisters of ours_' Cornelia thought.

"Yes" Lelouch answered simply "and he's immortal by the way. That's one of the reasons why he was erased" Lelouch said while thinking '_That and seriously who would give pint size any respect_'

"And you expect me to believe this story of yours?! Lelouch this is no time to be making things up. Lady Marianne is dead and-"

"She isn't" Lelouch cuts her off with that statement. Cornelia looks at him for a moment as if she couldn't believe what she just heard.

"What do you mean she isn't?!" Cornelia almost yelled but stops when she sees the cold look he gives her. "What I mean is would you explain your reasoning as to why you think she isn't… how am I supposed to address you?"

"Well it would be fun having you call me your majesty again…" Lelouch starts but cuts off when she gives him one her death glares "… but Lelouch will do. We'll save the 'your majesty' for later in bed during a more intimate moment" Lelouch says and is treated with a furiously blushing and spluttering Cornelia. "Oh? What don't tell me that didn't cross your mind when you gave yourself over to me" Lelouch says with that irritating smirk of his with a teasing tone "Like I said, later."

'_What the hell. He is acting completely different than normal_' Cornelia thought while some unwholesome thoughts of her and Lelouch in bed in various acts of debauchery go through her mind '_don't think about it, don't think about it_'

"Anyways as I was saying…" Lelouch continues on like he didn't just imply that there would be naughty things in the future involving him and her "… she isn't dead; at least not her spirit. You see she has this little power that was given to her by a witch of sorts. Don't interrupt, I'll get to that later" Lelouch says when Cornelia opens her mouth to ask about the witch and promptly closes it. "So this power of hers lets her to transfer her soul from her body to someone else."

"I would know if Lady Marianne had such a power Lelouch" Cornelia says. "Especially if she went about body hopping and leaving hers out vulnerable for anyone to do with as they would please. She would need to tell someone."

"Ah but that's the thing my dear, her power is a one-time use. A trump card if you will. If someone managed to kill her she would just jump into someone else."

"And who would Lady Marianne jump into? There was no one there Lelouch or do you expect me to believe she would jump into Nunnally with this power your speaking of" Cornelia says still not believing him either from skepticism or not wanting to believe.

"Who did I ask about before coming up here?" Lelouch asks her. Cornelia only takes a moment to think of the answer "Anya Alstreim" Cornelia answers.

"Correct. Of course Bismark knows about her power and has taken the girl to the Emperor. Of course she won't take the girl's body completely from her. They will be sharing the body from now on.

"Are you saying that the Emperor knows about this power of Lady Marianne's?" Cornelia asks.

"Of course, since it was our uncle and the Emperor who introduced her to the witch that gave her the power. I'd stay away from the Emperor as much as possible if I were you" Lelouch tells her.

"Why?"

"He's got it as well"

"Father can jump bodies as well?"

"Of course not; his is the power to manipulate memories" Lelouch says with disdain. This of course causes Cornelia to straighten a little more in her seat.

"Are you saying-?"

"That he can make it so that you don't remember something; or alter it to be something else? To change your memories of all the times that you have spent with Euphemia to memories of hate towards her? Yes, I do believe that is what I am saying." Lelouch says to her.

Ok now you are just sounding-" Cornelia starts.

"Insane? I know but it's the truth nonetheless. Now I know you don't believe a word I have told you this night and probably will continue not to believe me without some kind of proof" Lelouch says.

"**Of course not!**" Cornelia yells "Who would believe this nonsense that you have been blathering on about. Powers and soul transfers and memory manipulation, do you take me for a fool Lelouch?!" Cornelia asks hi angrily.

Lelouch gracefully gets up from the chair in an unnatural way for a 10 year old and approaches Cornelia in a way that frightens her a little in an instinctual way.

"I said to control yourself my dear. Do I have to punish you?" Lelouch asks in a deceptively seductive and sweet voice that should not be able to come from a child but still manages to get Cornelia a little excited and wonder what kind of punishment he would give her before she squashes those rebellious feelings.

"My statement still stands Lelouch" Cornelia says in a meek voice.

Lelouch smiles a smile that makes Cornelia's heart flutter for a moment, then says "I know and I will have the proof you want in a week" he then gives her a peck on the check that causes a light blush to appear on her face.

"What kind of proof?" Cornelia asks in a soft voice.

"Why an immortal witch of course" Lelouch says as he heads to his bed "In the meantime continue as if I had said nothing with the investigation until the Emperor tells you to stop. Also don't say anything to Schneizel either until you see my proof, you don't know who can be trusted at this point in time and I don't trust him so better safe than sorry. I'm taking a big leap here in trusting you so don't expect me to do so again if you violate it."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Cornelia says and causes Lelouch to stop in his tracks.

"You don't" he answers carefully "but you don't have anything to lose either by not saying anything about what we have talked about tonight."

"Who are you?" Cornelia finally asks "you don't talk or act like the Lelouch I know. What have you done with my brother?!" Cornelia demands.

Lelouch slowly turns around with an expressionless look on his face. He stands there a moment observing her and then a smug looking smirk slowly creeps upon his face and says "very observant my dear. You are right of course, your Lelouch is gone…" he says as his eyes tint a little with madness and Cornelia gets a horrified look on her face "… and before you ask he won't be coming back, not possible. He was merged into me when it was my turn to have control. He was going to be lost anyways after the events that happened tonight. He was not going to be the same anymore and it would have serious repercussions for everyone that knew him, including little Euphie." At that Cornelia didn't know whether it was good or not if what he is saying could be a good thing. "You could say that I have already experienced what he was going to go through in regards to his life whether I intervened or not and a lot less naive than him. Like I already told you, the further you down the rabbit hole Cornelia, the more things make less sense."

"I-if you're not the same little brother that I know, then who are you?" Cornelia asks a little terrified of what the answer might be.

"I am the protector of the weak and innocent, the nightmare and bane of those who abuse their power and oppress others. **I destroy worlds and create them anew**…" Lelouch declares while sweeping out his arm, his hand like he was holding the world and then crushing it "…I have gone by different names since the start of my journey those many years ago…" He starts and sees Cornelia is enraptured "…Lelouch Lamparouge the innocent school boy…" He says with a pure look on his face "…Zero, the black knight of justice that destroys evil and the hero of the innocent…" he says while his face turns to one of disgust because of all the injustice in the world that needs to be corrected and those responsible brought to justice "… a warlock to one who seeks an equal to share their life with and explore the wonders of life…" he says with a condescending look on his face which then turns into one that looks like it would enjoy watching others suffer with a better than thou look that would better fit on a demon and scares Cornelia for an unknown reason "…And Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, but better known by the masses as the Demon Emperor. I am the world's greatest hero and its most demonic villain. The world is the stage, the pieces are being set into place, and the curtain is soon to be drawn." he walks over back to the table, all the while looking at Cornelia who is somewhat terrified and a little awed by the existence that is her 10 year old brother that is now in front of her and is looking like a mighty deity of death, destruction and salvation in front of her. He picks up the black king and as he sets it down on the middle of the board practically slamming it which causes the rest of the pieces to fall leaving the black king the only one standing. He says some ominous words that feel like they are foretelling the future.

"**In the end I will be the last one standing.** **Let the games begin.**"

**A/N: alright that is the first chapter of my story. How was it? Was it good? What doesn't seem good? Please only constructive criticism, like the saying I like says, nothing good to say don't say anything. **

**Alright straight off the bat this will be a harem fanfic. If you don't like the harem paring don't read. Nobody is forcing you to. So I don't want complaints about it. I want to try it with lemons but I don't know if I will be able to do it justice so no promises. **

**I will finish my stories so don't worry about me abandoning this story if you like it. **

**Read and review.**

**Posted: 11/5/12**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Loyalty of an Orange Knight and Witch Hunt Preparations

**Alright this is the second chapter of my story. Hope you guys like it. **

"**Speech", '**_**thought**_**'**

**{flashback}**

**~ L ~ L ~ Lelouch centered point of view**

**~CO~CO~ Cornelia centered point of view**

**~C.C.~C.C.~ C.C. centered point of view**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass or any of its characters. This story is only for entertainment purposes and all rights are reserved to the creators of Code Geass and the company that owns it.**

**May Thursday 5, 2010**

**Pendragon, St. Darwin street, Aeries Villa**

If there was one thing that one could say about Jeremiah Gottwald it would be that he is the living embodiment of loyalty. It was one of the two things that one would say about a Gottwald.

The other is that they're fanatical or insane depending on whom you ask. But we digress. Point being is that the members of the house of Gottwald are taught from an early age about loyalty and to be true to themselves and of those that they choose to give their loyalty to. This of course has caused problems for them since the times of their ancestors because there are those from the other noble houses that would call them fickle because there would be members of their family that would serve those that would be considered enemies of the empire. And yet when it happens it is another member of the Gottwald house that would challenge them. What is even more surprising than that is that when it happens there is no animosity between them, only the utmost respect for each other for not faltering in the choices they made in regards to their loyalty. The only words spoken between Gottwald's when they face off against one another is "Show to me the conviction and the strength of your resolve of your loyalty!" and that is why they are viewed by some as insane but still highly useful and sought after because there is no greater soldier than a Gottwald that has given their loyalty to their master, and their ability to follow orders with no hesitation if right or wrong.

As it stands to reason, Jeremiah is no different from the rest of his family. If anything, he might just be the culmination of all the Gottwald loyalty. So it came as a hard and devastating blow to the young guardsman that swore loyalty to the vi Britannia line when he failed to protect his Ladyship Empress-consort Marianne two days ago. He remembers clearly the day that the Empress had summoned him to the Aeries Villa.

**{Flashback}**

**Aeries Villa, 1 year ago**

**Gardens, Gazebo**

He was a fresh graduate out of the military academy in the south of the Britannian Empire and ready to win glory on the battlefield and find a strong leader to serve under when he had been summoned by Princess Cornelia to the Aeries Villa. Everyone knew that the Aeries Villa was the home to the vi Britannia branch of the royal family and where her majesty, Empress-consort Marianne vi Britannia, one of the Empire's best knights, called home. Jeremiah had nothing but the utmost respect for Lady Marianne because in his book she embodied every ideal that he believed in and didn't care what anyone else from his class said, like the fellow kewell Soresi that would sometimes call her the peasant woman that wormed her way into the Emperor's bed. In Jeremiah's opinion, Lady Marianne was more of a noble than any of the other people that held the title of noble since most of them he found to be little better than the scum the he would scrap off the bottom of his boot. So when he arrived at the gardens at the Villa and saw Lady Marianne, he showed nothing but respect for the woman and got down on his knee to show his fealty.

When he heard a childish giggle he deigned to look up and saw that she was not alone, but with a small girl that seemed to be 7 years old. The Empress then asked the young woman that was standing by her in an officer's uniform if she would go find her son, Prince Lelouch, to meet him. He then heard the girl ask the Empress a question.

"Will he play with me?" the young girl asked.

"Now Nunnally, you have Euphemia and Lelouch to play with you" Lady Marianne said.

"But sister Euphie isn't here all the time and when she is all she wants to do is be around big brother and big brother has been a grumpy poopy head and stays inside reading and playing with his chess set that brother Schneizel got for him last year for his birthday" Princess Nunnally complained, with a heavy pout on her face, that she wasn't getting the attention she wanted from her siblings. "And big sister Cornelia won't play cause she's busy helping you."

"Now, now, it's not nice to say mean things about your brother little one" Lady Marianne said.

"That's right Nunnally, you never know when I would be listening" a young boy with raven black hair said from behind where the Princess was sitting, causing her to jump in her seat.

"B-big brother, don't scare me like that" the Princess said with teary eyes.

"My apologies my dear sister, I didn't mean to" the Prince said while patting her head with a soft look on his face. He then turned his head and spotted Jeremiah standing there taking in the whole scene with an air of interest at how the royal family interacted with one another. As the Prince looked over Jeremiah, he felt like the boy was analyzing him with his eyes and after a brief moment the boy smirked and looked over to his mother while asking "Who's your guest mother?"

"He's the new guard that will be watching over you and your sister Nunnally, Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald" Lady Marianne said causing Jeremiah to feel a little proud at the fact that he is being trusted to watch over two potential future rulers of the Empire.

"Do you play chess Lord Gottwald?" the Prince inquired of him.

"Again, Lelouch dear?" Lady Marianne asked with an exasperated sigh.

"Of course mother, my little sister must be well protected" Lelouch said which made Nunnally happy to hear that he put her as his top priority over everyone else.

Meanwhile Jeremiah was thinking '_A test? Interesting; although he might not prove to be much of a challenge, Prince of the Empire or not. Still if I must, I will prove myself._'

"I do not mind. I have won a tournament or two in my time" Jeremiah said a little proud of his prowess at the Empire's favorite game.

"Mother, can you get someone to bring out the chess set?" The Prince asked.

"Alright dear" Lady Marianne said. She told one of the attendants to bring out the chess set while Lelouch sat down with Jeremiah sitting across from him.

As soon as the board was set they started to play.

10 minutes later found Jeremiah looking at the board in disbelief. He was serious when he said that he had won some tournaments before but the Prince beat him like it was nothing. At first he had the clear advantage with the Prince playing in a relaxed manner taking his time with him but a few moves before checkmate, the Prince was able to turn the game around and claim victory for himself. It was a terrifying thought thinking of what the boy would be capable of in the future once he matured. It also gave him giddiness at the prospect of following the boy into battle.

"Big brother has never lost to anyone other than father and brother Schneizel" Nunnally said brightly, proud of her big brother, meanwhile Lelouch studied the man before him.

'_It seems that I was unable to pass this test of the Prince's._' Jeremiah thought.

Lelouch got up from his seat and said "he will do mother."

Jeremiah was surprised by what the young Princeling said and stated "but your highness, I didn't win. I'm not worthy."

"When did I say that you had to win?" Lelouch said "it was just to test your character and how you handle defeat. You did better than the other's. They were too full of themselves to accept their defeats."

Lelouch then walked away and Jeremiah saw Lady Marianne and Princess Nunnally looking at him with satisfied looks on their faces. "Is something wrong, your highnesses?" Jeremiah inquired.

"It seems that young Lelouch has taken a liking to you Sir Gottwald" Lady Marianne said.

"I beg to differ your highness" Jeremiah responded.

"It's true though. Big brother only praises the people he likes or respects" Nunnally said brightly.

"Come along Nunnally. We must prepare for Euphie. You did say you wanted to play right?" Lelouch says from the door way having come back for his sister.

"Yay! Coming big brother!" Nunnally cheers running to catch up to her brother.

Jeremiah was awed that he was able to gain the approval of one of the royal's most likely to succeed the current Emperor.

"It seems you some big expectations to fulfill Sir Gottwald. Are you up for the challenge?" Lady Marianne inquired.

"I will not fail you your highness or the young prince and his sister" Jeremiah declared.

"See that you don't good sir" Lady Marianne acknowledge the young knight.

**{End Flashback}**

**Aeries Villa**

**Gardens**

And he had not failed until two nights ago when he failed to protect the boy's mother. Since that night he has just been going about his guard job in a daze not really there most of the time, just going through the motions. That is why he was not sure how it is that he found himself at the exit that lead to the gardens where he had first meet the members of the vi Britannia branch of the royal family. As he stood there with a forlorn look on his face thinking about his failure at protecting the Prince's mother, even though reason said that he couldn't have done anything because he wasn't there when it happened, he heard the Prince before he came into his line of sight coming up a path from the gardens.

"Come out woman. I told you I'm in no mood to play with you. Come out here this instant and take your punishment like the-"

Jeremiah cut him off and his eyes widened when he saw his young charge with a firearm in his possession "your highness!" he exclaimed and rushed to the boys side to get the weapon before something happened to the boy because of his lapse in judgment. "You should be more careful with dangerous items like this my young Prince. We just lost your mother only a few short days ago, we don't want to lose you as well."

Then a thought occurred to Jeremiah as to why the Prince would need a firearm in the first place.

"My Prince, are you in danger? Did you discover something here in the gardens?" He inquired while quickly surveying the surrounding area for any potential threat while missing the smirk that the boy had, glad to see that Jeremiah was as vigilant as ever.

"No just looking for something that I've misplaced Jeremiah" Lelouch told him, momentarily forgetting the deadline he was on.

"Would you like me to help you look for your misplaced property, your highness?" Jeremiah inquired.

~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~

It was when Jeremiah asked him what it was that he was looking for that he remembered what he was doing and got a pissed off look on his regal face and started looking around. He was sure that he had gotten a glimpse of the blasted woman's hair before Jeremiah had interrupted him. He couldn't blame the man; he didn't know what he was currently doing.

'_Damn, she's just playing with me, I just know it. Why does she always have to be so damn irritating? Would it really kill her to be cooperative just one time... on second thought it might._' Lelouch thought and then turned to look at Jeremiah, his most loyal knight from most of his replays, again.

'_Hmm, well I might as well make sure Jeremiah remains loyal now, opposed to later, can't let orange wonder too far. Don't know who might try to take advantage of him in this state… oh wait yes I do, me and the purists. Only difference I have his real loyalty._' Lelouch thought while another smirk appeared on his face.

"Say Jeremiah" Lelouch started.

"Yes, your highness" Jeremiah asked paying attention to the young Princeling again.

"Where does your loyalty lie? Does it lie with the Emperor and the Empire or with the vi Britannia line?" Lelouch questioned him.

For Jeremiah on his part, was able to understand what the young Prince was trying to find out from Jeremiah. If his loyalty laid with the boy's father, then the boy would probably take it to mean that he didn't care what happened to the vi Britannia's and would not ask for his help. As such, it was not a hard decision for him to make. He had made his choice to follow the boy since that fateful day a year ago when the boy soundly beat him at the Empires game. If the boy was allowed to mature he has no doubt that the boy would be the best possible candidate to be the next Emperor. Not only was that it but also the boy also kind to those that he cares about as he observed when he watched over him and his sister's. So Jeremiah got down and brought his arm to his chest to show his fealty to his liege and master.

"My loyalty is with you and your sister, your highness. If you are worried if I would abandon you and Princess Nunnally at your most vulnerable without protection, then let me reassure you that I will always be there to protect the both of you" Jeremiah declared to the boy.

Lelouch smirked and said "of course. I had no worries about you Jeremiah. The others might leave us now that mother is no longer with us but I know you are a man whose loyalty outrivals that of Bismarks. It would go against your honor to abandon us. I ask more for your sake than mine since it seems that you have been distracted the last couple of days. We can't have that; we need you at your best."

Jeremiah looked at the boy in awe. The Prince had just lost his mother and was still able to make sure that those around him were doing fine. He now knew that he did indeed choose the right person to follow.

"My apologies your highness, I will make sure that it doesn't happen again" Jeremiah reassures him.

"No worries" Lelouch says before he gets an idea and a wicked smile pulls on the corner of his lips and says "Now let's go Jeremiah, we got some business to attend to."

"Where are we going your highness?" Jeremiah inquired as he gets up to follow Lelouch.

"I will need you to go and find some people for me, while I go about to set a trap fit for a witch" Lelouch says with an evil smirk while thinking '_Ah revenge, is there nothing better._'

~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~

**Aeries Villa**

**Front Entrance**

Cornelia may be a princess and in her opinion often thought of as fools from the way people treat her but she did not consider herself a fool like the rest of her sisters. She did not think of herself of believing in stories of magic meant for children or stories of the dead living through supernatural means. She thought herself better than that, but seems that isn't the case. It has been 2 days since she had heard her little brother's story of powers and nonexistent relatives and general all round conspiracies not even fit for the tabloids. And she had bought it all up to the point that she pledged herself to him. Sure she said that she didn't believe him but there was still that part of her from childhood that still wanted to believe in those kinds of things. What had really clenched it for her was the perceived danger that Lelouch had said that her sister was in. When Lelouch had told her about Euphie she couldn't think calmly anymore at that point. It was bad enough that they had lost Lady Marianne and Nunnally had been injured, it would have been understandable that any more than that would have had her dealing with the devil, which she did but didn't know; to make sure that nothing happened to her little sister.

For that she can say that she indeed is a fool. As she gets up to the entrance to the Aeries Villa, she remembers yesterday when she had finally gotten back to the li Britannia household after the initial investigation into the murder of Lady Marianne.

**{Flashback}**

**May Wednesday 4, 2010**

**Li Britannia household**

**Living area**

Cornelia walked into her family's home feeling drained and a little humiliated. It is almost midday and almost 8 hours since Lady Marianne's body had been found. Cornelia was feeling humiliated and foolish for what she did with Lelouch shortly after the body had been found. At the time she felt like it was right but now she felt nothing like that. She then noticed that her little sister was there in the living room in her nightwear with big red eyes from crying that stained her clothing.

'_So she's heard what's happened_' Cornelia thought sadly.

"Big sister is it true? Is Lady Marianne dead and Nunnally in the hospital?" Euphie asked her.

It was clear to Cornelia that her little sister was as worried as she had been before Lelouch had gone and confused her about the whole situation with his little tale of the supernatural. "Unfortunately it is little Euphie."

"Oh my God! Is Nunnally going to be alright? What about Lelouch? Where is he? Is he going to be okay?" Euphie asked worried about her brother.

"The last I talked with the doctors they told me that it's too early to tell what Nunnally's condition is. All we can do is wait and see what happens from there. And-" Cornelia paused unsure of whether or not Lelouch was okay. '_Maybe what happened last night was his way of dealing with what happened? Maybe it was some kind of coping mechanism?_' Cornelia thought before continuing "I don't know about Lelouch. I only saw him briefly last night before I started my investigation into the matter. Don't worry, I will find the one's responsible and bring them to justice. I was about to go to the hospital to check on Nunnally after I got changed. Do you want to go with me?"

"Yes please" Euphie said while nodding her head vigorously "will Lelouch be there?"

"Probably but I'm not too sure" Cornelia answered while thinking '_can't be sure what he'll do after what happened last night._'

"Of course he will. He wouldn't leave Nunnally alone like that" Euphie said with conviction in her voice that he would do right by Nunnally "I'll go get ready as well."

As Euphie headed up to her room with Cornelia going up to hers as well for a change of clothes, she thought back to what Lelouch had said last night.

'_I would sooner die then willingly let my sister come to harm._' Cornelia remembered.

'_If there is one thing that I can be sure of about last night, it would have to be that_' Cornelia thought. '_Lelouch has always cared about Nunnally as much as I have about Euphemia._'

**Cornelia's room**

When she finished changing into another of her officers uniform's that was easier to move around in an attendant came in saying "your highness, Prince Schneizel requests to speak with you concerning to matters from last night."

'_Schneizel? He's already heard about it?_' Cornelia thought before saying "I'll be there in a minute."

**Study**

Cornelia was downstairs when she finished dressing and saw that her brother was on the screen as she greeted him "Hello brother."

"Cornelia" Shcneizel responded. To her he looked calm and collected like always. He really was the picture of princely nobility with his regal looks, short blonde hair and pristine white clothing that fit him perfectly. "How's Nunnally? Are there any new developments on the situation?"

"Last I heard she was still on the operation table having the bullets removed from her legs. They said it was quite extensive…" Cornelia said. She then scowled remembering about the investigation before answering "…as for the investigation, there hasn't really been any leads to go off on so far. At the moment I left it to Guilford while I attend to family matters but rest assured the ones responsible will be caught."

"I have full confidence in your abilities and your men's sister" Shcneizel said. "I'm on my way to the hospital to check up on Nunnally now. Do you know if Lelouch is there? I haven't been able to locate him."

Cornelia was surprised that her brother was not to be found anywhere but at the same time not sure if he would actually be at the hospital. "I don't know, I haven't seen him since last night."

"I see" Shcneizel said.

"Euphie and myself are also about to go to the hospital to check up on Nunnally. If possible, there is something I would like to discuss with you while we are there in person" Cornelia asked, while thinking '_maybe I can talk to him about Lelouch and what happened last night, with some glossed over facts._'

Schneizel looked at her for a moment, in the same way that Lelouch had last night she realized, only not as deep. "I will see you there then…" he responded "…farewell."

"Goodbye brother" Cornelia said.

She sat there for a while pondering on the best way that she could broach the subject about Lelouch to Schneizel when Euphie came in. She was wearing one of her less puffy pink dresses and was ready to go and check on her siblings.

"You ready Euphie?" Cornelia asked and after another vigorous nod from Euphie Cornelia said "alright let's go."

**Hospital**

When they got to the hospital, they were told that their sister was still on the operation table to have the bullets removed and that, to Cornelia's surprised relief, Prince Lelouch was there observing the operation from the observation deck. Cornelia took Euphie to a waiting room and left her there with 2 guards that she had brought so that she could go and check on how things were going. On her way there she meet someone coming out of the operation deck that she was not expecting to be there at the hospital.

"General Darlton, sir" Cornelia said while at the same time saluting her superior.

"No need for that here captain" Darlton said. To her he looked a little pale.

Of course…' Cornelia answered and asked "…would it be rude of me if I asked why you are here sir?"

General Darlton further paled and looked away a little ashamed looking in Cornelia's opinion. "No, I was asked to come here" he answered.

"By my brother?" she asked seeing as how he came out of the room that Lelouch was supposed to be in.

"Yes, he asked to bring him here…" he answered and after a moment of hesitation said "…I didn't know that he knew who I was."

Cornelia was still more surprised that her brother would ask someone as important as the general to bring him here. "Why would my brother ask you to bring him here?" Cornelia asked, confused.

"He asked if I would do him a…" Darlton stopped to choose his words carefully as if not sure what to say "…favor of sorts."

Cornelia was confused as to what her brother would ask of from a general, so she asked" What did my brother want?"

"You will see when you meet with him…" he said solemnly, which worried her a little bit as to what Lelouch had asked of him "…I will say this, I have not met many as him. He is definitely a strong individual…" he said while looking back at the door with a look that looked a little fearful of what lay beyond and turned back as he was leaving and said "...I will be on my way."

"Yes, thank you for bringing him" Cornelia said watching him go while still a little worried.

She then went into the observation room and saw Lelouch there sitting in a wheelchair observing the doctor operating on his sister's legs. The scene before her got her blood boiling. '_The audacity he has! He sees that his sister is in there being operated and has the nerve to sit there in a wheelchair that she will probably need from now on?!_' Cornelia thought. She then noticed that he was observing the whole thing with an uninterested look on his face. That only caused for Cornelia to get even madder. She marched right up from behind him and, intending to get him up from the wheelchair, grabbed his shoulder and heard him hiss in pain.

Confused, she looked to where she grabbed him and saw that the shirt had darkened a bit. "Lelouch, what is wrong with your shoulder?" Cornelia asked.

Lelouch then turned his head to look at her with that impassive look on his face and said "Oh hello Cornelia. Came to pay a visit? How nice of you. Is Euphie with you?"

"I said what's wrong with your shoulder!" Cornelia demanded.

Lelouch looked at his shoulder where Cornelia had grabbed him and said in an unbothered tone of voice "Atonement. I was unable to help her…" he said indicating he meant Nunnally "…so I wanted my punishment for failing to protect my sister. 100 lashes for each bullet that hurt her and 2 more for what the Emperor will do."

Cornelia could only look horrified at what he said and began to take of his shirt despite his protests. Underneath what she found made her heart go out for the boy and made her mad that he would do that to himself. He had bandages wrapped around his torso from his waist to his neck with the parts touching his back soaked through at spots with his blood. She felt like she was going to be sick. Then she remembered what the general had said.

"Is this what you asked the general to do for you?! To mutilate you!" Cornelia almost yelled but had the presence of mind to remember that they were operating on Nunnally but still very much angry at him and his stupidity. "He could have killed you with the blood loss. He could face death if anyone found out. What would possess you to-"

"I told you, atonement. No matter how many times I relive through this moment, I am never able to prevent this…" Lelouch said, angered that he was unable to protect his sister "…the only thing I can do is show how much I regret being unable to help her. So every time this happens I have Darlton do this to this to me because he understands. He has been through things that he wishes that he could have prevented from happening but couldn't and now finds his own way to atone. For me, this is my way. She suffered, I suffer. Simple as that" Lelouch said.

"Lelouch! You're still going on about that?!" Cornelia said wishing that last night had been a terrible dream and that her brother had not done this to himself.

"Still skeptical I see…" Lelouch said not surprised about her skepticism "… no matter. You'll see soon enough. In the meantime remember not to say anything to anyone about it…" he said and looked at her with a glare "… and again especially not Schneizel or the Emperor." He said in an accusatory tone that caused Cornelia to run a cold sweat down her spine. "That's right; I know what you were planning. I told you, I've lived through this already and you're predictable." Lelouch said back to his smug tone. "Just remember, you gave your word and life, so wait until I bring you the witch. Do you understand?"

"…yes" Cornelia said angrily because he was able to see through her so easily.

"Now now, no need to be angry…" he said with that heartwarming smile of his causing a faint blush to appear on Cornelia's face despite herself "…I'm just asking you for time right now. It's not much I'm asking for now …" Lelouch said which caused Cornelia to shudder for some reason "…now let's go, they will still be a while and I imagine little Euphie is worrying herself into a fit" he said with an amused tone at his sister's supposed antics.

"…you want me to push you, don't you?" Cornelia said offended at being treated like a common nurse.

"If you could…" Lelouch said in an appreciative tone that surprised Cornelia thinking that he would have just demanded it "…it's been a while since I last saw Euphie. I think it's been almost a 1,000 years."

At that comment Cornelia froze and is suddenly worried about her sister meeting this Lelouch. '_Would he do the same to her as he did to me? Should I protect her from him? But how ill I justify it?_' Cornelia thought.

"Don't worry, I won't dirty Euphemia…" Lelouch said without turning around to see her "…that is a soul I don't want to dirty with the ugly truths of the world unless she herself asks. Remember, your life may be mine but I expect you to continue to protect her against those that wish to extinguish her light." Lelouch said which made Cornelia feel better about whatever it was that was happening with him that he was still at least protecting their little sisters.

"We will still have to talk about this hurting yourself business" Cornelia said to cover her being proud of him for thinking of the girls.

"I'm sure" Lelouch said with a tone that said 'go ahead and try, what's done is done.'

"I still want to know what it is you supposedly have gone through as well" Cornelia said trying to Weddle more information out of him.

"In due time sister, you will find out when its time" he responded.

As Cornelia walked, pushing Lelouch to where she left Euphie, she heard Lelouch say something that made her think that maybe her brother was still there.

"Thanks for coming."

When they got to the waiting room where Cornelia had left Euphemia, they heard the girl before they saw her as a pink blur dashing towards Lelouch "Lelouch! Oh my God, are you okay? What happened? Sister said that you were okay! How's Nunnally? Is she okay?" Euphie asked without giving him a chance to talk while looking him over to see if her sister had lied to her and he was injured, but didn't see anything wrong.

"I'm fine Euphie, just tired from getting up late at night. I asked Cornelia if she wouldn't mind pushing me around until I had more energy…" Lelouch said giving Cornelia a smirk who returned a growl in response in his direction "…Oh scary. Be careful Euphie, she might want to eat you up" Lelouch said causing Euphie to giggle nervously.

"I don't think now is a good time to be making jokes Lelouch…" Euphie said as she quickly changed subjects to a more concerning one "…how is Nunnally? Have you seen her?"

Before Cornelia could say anything Lelouch beat her to it by saying "she'll be out in two hours. She'll need to be kept in a forced coma so that she can heal faster. They'll let us see her then."

"That means she'll be alright, right?" Euphie asked with hope and concern laced in her voice worried about her sister.

"We will have to wait and see" Cornelia said.

Just then they heard someone coming from down the hall and saw their brother's Schneizel and Clovis with Schneizel's assistant, Kanon Mandalini. When the two brothers reached their siblings, Schneizel smiled at them kindly and said "It's good to see you three well, if only it could have been under better circumstances."

"Indeed…" Lelouch said with an emotionless face and then turned to his sister "…I'm heading back to the viewing deck to make sure things are going well. Don't forget Cornelia what I said…" Lelouch reminded her and as he was leaving he said "…I'll see later Schneizel, Clovis."

As they watched Lelouch roll away being pushed by a young nurse he seemed to be flirting with towards the operation room Schneizel asked "did I do something to offend him?"

"No, I think he is worried about Nunnally" Euphie said with a worried look on her face for both of her vi Britannia siblings.

"I agree" Cornelia said thinking it would do as well as anything else.

"Hmm" Schneizel said unsure "well that can wait until later I suppose. We just spoke to the doctor, right Clovis?"

"That's right. They said that they should be done in another few hours. How are you two though? Are you doing well with what's happened?"

"We're fine…" Cornelia said "…just worried about Nunnally."

"Well that's good." Schneizel said and then remembered that Cornelia had something she wanted to talk to him about "Was there something you needed to speak to me about Cornelia?"

Cornelia was about to tell him about her thoughts on Lelouch when she remembered that he had asked her for time. "No, it's fine. It's not that important."

"…Okay then, I will see you later then. The Emperor summoned me to talk with him about this affair."

**{Flashback End}**

It had been a weird few days for her; her brother not being her brother, Nunnally hurt and Lady Marianne dead but not dead according to her not brother. '_Why did this have to happen?_' Cornelia thought with a sigh and opened the door into the Villa and bumped into a guardsman that was leaving. When the guardsman saw who he had bump into, he bowed deeply while saying "My apologies, your highness. I was on an errand for the Prince."

'_An errand for Lelouch?_' Cornelia thought intrigued that her brother was already doing something so soon after Nunnally had been moved to forced coma to help her heal yesterday. "What is it that Lelouch has asked you to do?" Cornelia demanded to know.

"Cornelia, leave Jeremiah alone…" she heard Lelouch and saw him by the door leading to the kitchen "…he has a job to do. Go Jeremiah. I expect you to come back with what I asked for."

"Yes your highness" Jeremiah bowed and then left through the door.

"I don't like you sending out my guards on mysterious errands Lelouch" Cornelia tried to reprimand him.

She then saw him lean against the wall and arched an eyebrow giving her a questioning look while she thought '_Really?! Is that anyway for a 10 year old to act?!_'

"And your mine remember" Lelouch said.

"Only after if you can prove your little story Lelouch" Cornelia said trying to dissuade him from that line of thought and to forget what had happened.

"Oh, restrictions now?" Lelouch questioned, then stood up and said "I guess that's fair enough for now…" Lelouch said then with a smirk creeping on his face that made Cornelia rethink if it was a good idea to say that "… though when I am proven right, you will need to be punished" he said causing her to shiver not sure why.

"Never mind that now…" Cornelia said while blushing furiously at what he was saying "…where have sent my guardsman!"

"Just to pick me up some people that I want to talk to. Nothing to worry about…" Lelouch said. He then looked her up and down making her feel uncomfortable "…do you know how to cook?"

"What?"

"Cook…" Lelouch said again "…more specifically pizza."

"I'm sure you can have one of the kitchen maids make you one…" Cornelia said back not wanting to admit that she didn't know. "… and how do you know about pizza? Your mother didn't let you eat that."

Lelouch just gave her a look that said that he was not the same Lelouch that she knew and to remember that.

"I'll take that as a no…" Lelouch said "…and theirs won't do. I need the grade A stuff…" Lelouch then heaved a sigh "…looks like I'm going to need to make it. What a pain."

"Why do you need to make pizza?" Cornelia said ignoring the fact that he shouldn't know how to cook. "You're too young to be baking" she said not believing that he actually could.

"I need it for bait…" he said heading back to towards the kitchen "…in this body I can't really do much physically yet so I need to think creatively for the moment…" Lelouch said before stopping and thinking before walking back towards Cornelia and pulling something out from his clothes to hand to her "…you think you can have this sent out for me?"

"Another person?" She said with disdain at being treated as a simple messenger boy "…couldn't you have had that guard you sent to retrieve this person as well?"

"Can't make this one come to me…" he said with a smirk "…this is a request to visit him instead."

"Who could you not order to have come to you?" Cornelia asked intrigued who her brother wanted to meet that he had to go to them.

"The Chinese Emperor" Lelouch said like he was on speaking terms with the guy. He was in the previous lives but she didn't know that.

This of course caused Cornelia to freeze up and her eyes to widen. '_The Chinese Emperor?! Is he insane!_' she thought.

"I'm not insane Cornelia…" he said causing her to think if he might be able to read minds "…and I can't read minds. You're just easy for me to read."

"…that's annoying" was all she could say about the matter.

"I know…" he said "…but you will make sure it gets to the Chinese Emperor right? It's important."

"Can't you just send it?" she asked him.

"I could but it would first need to go through the Eunuchs hands and I'd rather not deal with them now."

'_The Chinese Emperor has bad relations with his advisors? It could be-_' Cornelia was thinking before Lelouch said "No Cornelia, you cannot use that information to try and bring down the federation."

"…are you sure about not being able to read minds and not being insane?" Cornelia asks frustrated at him.

"100% on the mind reading, 99.9% on the not being insane" he says as he went into the corridor that leads to the kitchen.

"…wonderful" Cornelia says sarcastically.

"I heard that…" Lelouch yells from the corridor causing Cornelia to cringe a little "…just get the letter sent by today, tomorrow the latest, if you could dear" he said which caused Cornelia to blush again and stomp about going to do her duties.

**A/N: Alright that's chapter 2. How was it? You guys like it? Don't know if some of it sounded forced or occ. **

**Now it has been mentioned to me that the first chapter was somewhat like **** 's story **_**17**__**th**__** times a charm**_**. I have emailed him and asked if it was alright if I used the premise that he did and he said it was fine. IT came out with something's being like his but that would be it for similarities. **

**As for Lelouch telling Cornelia about himself that will have to wait for a while.**

**As of at the moment I haven't finished deciding all of who will be in the harem but I got some already so that will finalized soon.**

**That's pretty much all. Read and Review.**

**Posted: 11/13/12**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Capturing A Witch, Abandoners Convene and Piece Collecting**

**Alright guys this is the thirds chapter. Sorry for the long wait, trying to come up with an ending for this chapter was harder than I thought it would have been. Hope you guys like it.**

"**Speech", '**_**thought**_**'**

**{flashback}**

**~ L ~ L ~ Lelouch centered point of view**

**~CO~CO~ Cornelia centered point of view**

**~C.C.~C.C.~ C.C. centered point of view**

**~ O ~ O ~ Omniscient (3rd person) point of view**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass or any of its characters. This story is only for entertainment purposes and all rights are reserved to the creators of Code Geass and the company that owns it.**

~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~

**May Thursday 5, 2010**

**Evening**

**Aeries Villa**

**Corridors **

C.C. found herself wandering the corridors of Aeries Villa that night for the last time. She had decided to leave yesterday when she found out that her latest contractor had been 'murdered', if ditching your body and going into a little girl's body, could be called dead.

'_Honestly I should have seen it coming. The woman simply refused to use her geass, so I couldn't have known what it could do_' thought C.C. When she learned what it did when the woman had finally used it, C.C. was understandably perturbed. There came and went another potential person that could have taken her code and released her from this existence.

'_Why did you betray me Marianne?_' C.C. thought with a whimsical look on her face. '_Oh well, this place has run its course anyways; Time to go find someone else to take this curse from me._'

As she continued to walk through the majestic halls of the mansion, she noticed an irresistible aroma assaulting her senses. '_Is that… no, it can't be. No one in this blasted place can make a decent pizza._' She thought confused but then smirked happily at the thought of finally having really good pizza after going without it for who knows how long. '_damn Marianne and not wanting her children to have any._'

'_Well that's one good thing out of this; I can finally enjoy pizza again._' With that thought she began her hunt for the food of gods, or at least that was her thoughts on the delicious substance.

A while later we find her in one of the smaller dining halls that was meant for a more intimate family meal than opposed to the gaudy one Marianne always used despite her always saying that she was a simple woman. At the head of the table was the food of the gods (true to C.C., debatable to everyone else) and an unexpected host in front of the greatest invention of man, again her opinion that should be made fact.

She didn't really interact much with the other royals, other than Marianne, chuckles, short stack and on occasion the purple one that followed Marianne everywhere like a puppy with a bone. What she did know of this royal was that he was an anomaly.

It is Prince Lelouch; Marianne's supposed pride and joy. What C.C. knew of the boy was that he was arrogant thanks to his Prince Hood and Marianne pampering the boy caused him to have an inflated ego, but is supposed to be one of the Empires up and coming brightest minds in strategy and tactics, although to C.C. this meant absolutely squat. Not much really meant much to her anymore because of her immortality.

So the big question here was what was the boy doing here late at night instead of in bed or with his sister that short stack had maimed to fake the way how he killed Marianne. '_Well it's not like he is much of a threat. Marianne did say that he was abnormally weak after all. And he does have the pizza there. I might as well have some dinner entertainment._' C.C. thought and then smirked as she walked towards the boy.

"Who are you!" the boy demanded of her when he noticed her approaching. '_Arrogant indeed_' C.C. thought before saying "Just passing through. I smelled something good and came by to see what it was. Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" C.C. said with her smirk ever present.

"I'm a prince. I can do what I want." he said while C.C. thought '_you should have taught the boy better Marianne. At this rate he's going to get himself exiled. Not that it matters to me either way._'

"I ask again, why are you here" C.C. asked with her expressionless face. She had found that it unnerved some people when she did that but the boy didn't seem to be fazed by it at all.

"I saw someone bring this in here…" he gestured towards the pizza "… a couple of minutes ago and wondered what it was. I haven't seen anything like it before. Smells disgusting though" he said which caused an instant frown to appear on C.C.'s face.

"Now I doubt that young prince. That is a pizza…" C.C. said as she walked to stand on the left side of the pizza and took a piece from the tray "… and it is the best thing in the entire world to eat."

"Hmph…" Lelouch said as he walked away from the table and towards the exit that was behind him "… whatever, I'm leaving. I can't stand the smell any longer."

"Are you sure you don't want any, little prince…"C.C. said in a mocking tone as she was about to take a bite of the pizza "… you never know if something's good unless you try."

"Quite sure…" Lelouch said as he disappeared behind the wall "… good night."

When the prince was gone, C.C. decided to gorge herself on what she presumed to be the first of many pizza's to come while thinking '_the boy was interesting. Definitely different from what Marianne said about him. Perhaps I'll check up on him in a few years, if he's still alive…_' she chuckled at this thought because at the moment she thought his chances of living longer were 50/50 '_… I'll see if he can be the one to take this code from me._'

As she picked up the tray that only had a couple more slices of pizza left on it and began to walk towards the same exit that Lelouch had left through, she began to feel dizzy '_what's wrong with me? I shouldn't feel like this…_'

As she turned the corner in the direction the boy had gone, her eyes widened a fraction to see the boy there with a gun in his hand.

"Took you long enough…" he said with a smirk "… thought you might've fallen asleep in there. That wouldn't have been as fun."

When he said that, it clicked in her head that he did something to the pizza and looked at the piece that she had in her hand. She heard muffled sounds of gunshots and as she looked down she noticed that she was on the ground and that he had shot her legs. Although that had happened she was still focused more on the pizza. '_That was the best pizza I've ever had. I need to know who made it."_

"Who made the pizza?" She asked unconcerned in the fact that he had the barrel of the gun at her head.

He smirked and said "Pizza is more important than life right?"

"Of course" she said a little miffed that the boy wouldn't answer her. "Why are you trying to kill me anyway? Trying to prove something to daddy dearest?" She asked still not worried about the situation.

"You could say it's me getting even…" he said "… but more really from letting you go out there and meeting that insufferable Mao."

"Mao?" C.C. asked interested in what the boy might be talking about "… who's Mao?"

"Nobody to concern yourself with…" he said "…now lights out for you."

"You know you can't kill don't you" she said getting the feeling that the boy might actually know something about her.

"Yes I know…" he said smirking "… this is me just keeping you from misbehaving… (BAM)" he said her name surprising her as he pulled the trigger.

~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~

**May Saturday 7, 2010**

**Britannia Royal Palace**

**Night**

**Throne Room**

Charles zi Britannia is considered many things, a strong man that led his empire's expansion to cover almost a third of the world, a wise man to know when something was worth it in the end or to leave it alone and take it at another time like when he decided to leave the federation alone for now, a vindictive man that would pay back a person that wronged him in spades like during the ascension war to determine who would lead the empire, a prideful man that would not admit when he was in the wrong but make it so that in the end he was right by whatever means. He is those things and many others, but one thing that he is not is a weakling He detests the weak. In his empire the weak only take up space and only get in the way of his goals, and he does not tolerate it.

That is why he built his empire based on the strong triumphing over the weak. He wholeheartedly believes that and that the strong are the only ones to have the right to live and thrive in this world. The way that he has built his empire has caused it so that when his favorite wife was murdered he could not show weakness. At the onset of his ascend to being emperor he knew that it was a possibility for it to happen when he began to encourage his subjects to take what they wanted and to not be apologetic about it, but just because he couldn't show weakness didn't mean that he couldn't be mad about it. When Charles learned that it had been his own brother that had done it he was furious. He still remembers it vividly when he had confronted him about it.

**{flashback}**

**C's World**

**Sword of Akasha**

Charles is standing at the top of the stairs of a majestic pantheon that seems to be made of limestone. The columns carved into groves of past wars and the hardships that man has faced. The entire structure seems to be floating in the clouds and it is eternal twilight. Ascending the stairs behind Charles is a small boy with long blond hair that is touching the floor. His clothes are that of nobility in the colors of white and outlined in green with gold lining. As he reaches the top of the stairs and stands next to the emperor he begins to speak.

"I heard what happened. My condolences" V.V. said to his borther while looking ahead at swirling clouds of C's world.

"My thanks, my brother" Charles responds while thinking '_please brother don't let it have been you._'

"Have you heard anything about it brother?" Charles asked hoping that he will tell him the truth.

"No I haven't. There have been many things keeping me busy at the directorate. Has there been anything new?" V.V. asked while feigning innocence.

Meanwhile Charles was livid. In his mind he was thinking '_he lied to me. We promised that we would do anything to achieve our goals but that we would never lie to each other. Why my brother? Why have you done this?! I will never forgive you for taking Marianne away from me._'

However his response betrayed none off his inner turmoil at being betrayed by his flesh and blood "No there hasn't. It matters not in the end though."

"Yes, that's right. Once the ragnorock connection is complete and complete the sword of Akasha to kill god we will finally be rid of this world of lies" V.V. said not knowing that Marianne had told Charles about what he did. "I'm glad to see that that woman has not led you astray from the plan Charles."

"Of course not brother, what mattes the most is the completion of the Ragnorock connection." Charles says still furious at his brother.

**{Flashback End}**

'_You will pay for what you have done brother but it will have to wait. The plan must continue to be rid of this world of lies. I can wait to get my revenge for what you have done._' Charles thought while seated on his throne in his royal purple garbs and white imperial wig. He then sees someone enter the chamber an d his anger ebbs a little at seeing who it is. He had summoned her because there was something amiss with the boy that he had had with Marianne.

"It seems that the boy has been acting strange since your death" Charles said as the person approached.

In appearance the person appeared to be nothing more than another 8 year old girl with pink hair in a periwinkle and black evening ball gown, but if one paid closer attention to the girl's eyes they would see red rimming around them. Marianne vi Britannia had indeed escaped death that night almost a week ago. She had gotten lucky when V.V. had gunned her down and saw little Anya Alstream there hiding behind one of the pillars where the little maniac could not see her.

The girl would not have been Marianne's first choice to escape to using her geass that C.C. had given her, but dying people couldn't be choosers. Now she was stuck in the girl until they could finish the plan. She wasn't about to let it get her down though. Now that she was free to do what she wanted, she was going to have her fun. First though, she had to deal with what was going on with her children.

"How so?" she asked in her usual playful manner while still looking over the girl's body and getting used to her new home for the duration.

"The reports say that he has withdrawn from the royal family except from Cornelia, Euphemia and Nunnally…" the emperor said in his bored tone "… and has been making use of your royal guard."

"oh…" she responded looking over to him, her interest peeked "… and what has he been doing with them?"

"He let them go" he simply responded.

"He what?!" she yelled incredulously that her son would do that to her handpicked guard while thinking '_does he know how long it took me to find them?!_'

"Does he know that he let go the best I could find?!"

"It seems the boy disagrees…" Charles said amused remembering what the boys reason was "… he said, and I quote, 'I don't want substandard soldiers that couldn't even protect a frail old woman.'"

"Frail?! Old?!" Marianne yelled at the insults. She didn't care if he was her child, nobody called her frail or old. "Why I ought a, how dare that boy of mine talk about me like that. I taught him better than that, and no comment from you about that while I'm like this…" she said knowing what he was going to say "… did he keep anyone at least? You didn't leave him defenseless did you?"

"No it seems that he decided to keep Cornelia on and that new fellow you had found recently."

"Gottwald?" she asked not understanding why her son would keep the inexperienced soldier albeit extreme in everything that he did. She understood him keeping Cornelia on, since she was his sister.

"Yes, that's the one I believe. The boy said that he would be more than enough for now…" he said still amused by the boy and his antics but then scowled "… although his attitude is troubling. Perhaps your death troubled him more than we thought."

"If it did?" she asked concerned for her son's fate, but ultimately leaving it to her husband.

"Then he would be unfit to remain as a part of this family. If he can't handle this, then he would need to be used as soon as possible while he's still useful unlike the other one. She will face his fate if he is unfit."

"He's just a boy Charles" she lightly admonished not concerned about Nunnally because her fate is already sealed.

"That is no excuse. I will I will have to have him summoned to determine his fate."

"Very well…" she said, letting him do as he pleased "… I suppose Nunnally is of no more use?"

"That's right…" he said "… except maybe to get Lelouch to do as we want. Depends on how he is really."

"Very well…" Marianne said.

The emperor then remembered about the immortal "… where is C.C.?"

"C.C.? I don't know. I haven't seen or heard from her since V.V. riddled me with that assault rifle of his…" Marianne pouted remembering that "… She probably already left the Britannian homeland. She did say that she was only here for me to complete my end of our contract and grant her wish. She won't be very cooperative with us now that I can't take her curse from her that's for sure." She reasoned with him.

"Hmm, it's fine for now. There isn't much we can do with her at the moment. We can let her roam for a while since the ragnorock connection is still not ready…" replied Charles "… that will be all for now."

"If that's all…" Marianne replied as she walked towards the exit "… I'm going to go and get this girl's body ready for military training. Need to find something to do in the meantime don't I?"

"Very well, when you're ready I will see about inducting her into the rounds."

~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~

**May Sunday 8, 2010**

**Aeries Palace**

**Lelouch's closet**

She wasn't sure how long it had been since the boy had trapped her. She was sure it had to have been a few days by now at least. One thing was for sure and that was that she didn't like it. He had gotten the drop on her, plain and simple. She was big enough to admit that. Not.

The question that was bugging her was how the boy had been able to do it. There hasn't been anyone that was able to do that in years yet the boya was able to. It didn't add up.

'_At least now I know better than to not be suspicious of kids_' C.C. thought.

When she had first woken up the boy was there unsurprised to find her not dead and chained to the wall. She was understandably mad at the boy and tried to get him to touch her on her skin so she would be able to shatter his mind but had found that the boy was actually wary of touching her so that was out. When she tried to figure out where it was that she was at she found that it was the boy's closet at the palace. It seemed that the boy had the closet cleaned out so that he could use it to imprison her. She has been able to maintain her stoic expression even after seeing that he wasn't about to let her touch him and found that he had prepared to have her sedated enough so that she wouldn't try anything. He checked in on her 3 times a day to bring her more food with sedatives in them. She would have stopped eating the food to be able to escape but it seemed that the boy knew her weakness, pizza, and was not about to let it go to waste especially since it was that same delicious pizza from the night that he was able to capture her. It was like a heroin addict that came across the best heroin that they were able to find, you just can't say no to it.

'_At least he brings the delicious pizza in large amounts_' she thought to having at least something to look forward to. As she was about to doze off again she saw the door open and the boy come in with the food of God ('_yes its God's food, get over it_')

She then heard the door open and saw the boy walk in pushing a cart full of pizza for her. She couldn't help but feel gleeful at the sight of the pizza even though she knew she shouldn't eat any.

'_Ah, to eat or not to eat, it was never a choice for me I guess…_' she then shrugged '_… oh well, things seem interesting here with him anyways. I guess I'll stick around for a while._'

"I see that you've been enjoying the food" he said to her.

"It's pizza" she replied with her stoic features not needing to say any more than that.

"That it is" he responded with a smirk.

"Which raises the question…" she said and raised an eyebrow "…how do you know I like it? I'm pretty sure I never showed myself around you boya, or your sister."

"Your right…" he responded with a smirk but she still saw his eye twitch at the boya remark "…but if I didn't get you now, then I would have to deal with that detestable Mao later…" he said with clear annoyance at the person he mentioned "…and I'd rather not go looking for you later."

"Oh…" she replied arching a fine green eyebrow and smirking "… and pray tell why you would want to look for me?"

"I like knowing where my witch is, is all" he said still with his smirk.

"Your's?" she said wondering why he would claim her as his and amusing that he would think that.

"Yes, mine…" he replied as he began to leave "… now if you'll excuse me. Preparations need to be made."

"Preparation's?" C.C. asked fishing for more information.

"No need for more information…" when he was at the door he said "… don't want that woman coming back here."

Lelouch then closed the door and left C.C. to continue to ponder the information that she has gotten since she was drugged into her current state.

'_He certainly is interesting. The more pressing question is how he knew I wouldn't die. Did he see me die before? Possible but unlikely…_' then she remembered the pizza and thought '_… well it doesn't matter right now. As long as this stuff keeps coming I guess I could hang around for a while._'

As she was about half way through the pizza that she had started on she got a mental call from her recently departed contractor.

'_**C.C.?'**_Marianne questioned **'**_**Wow this is convenient. Hey how are you? Are you still in Pendragon?**_**'**

'_**How am I?**_**'** C.C. replied sarcastically with a bitter undertone **'**_**Betrayed, that's how I am.**_**'** She then wondered if she should then mention the predicament that she was in but thought better of it.

'_She's already abandoned the boy so he's no longer any concern of hers and since she's not my contractor anymore then I don't have any obligation to tell her either._'

'_**I already left the empire. I decided to look for a new contractor since my last one skipped out on their end of the contract.**_**' **C.C. told Marianne.

'_**I didn't betray you…**_**'** Marianne mentally huffed **'**_**… I was just never informed of the details of our contract. Really, did you expect me to have agreed knowing now everything?**_**'** Marianne questioned C.C.

"_**Regardless, I'm now left without a contractor.**_**'**

'_**Where are you heading then?**_**'** Marianne asked.

'_**Not sure…**_**' **C.C. replied in her detached tone **'**_**… might head to Italy for pizza and then swing through the federation to have a look see how things are going on there.**_**'**

'_**Won't you tell me?**_**'** Marianne asked in her playful irritated tone at not getting anything from her.

'_**No**_**'**

'_**Whyyyy**_**' **whined Marianne.

'_**You're no longer my contractor, so it no longer concerns you**_**'** C.C. stated.

'_**But we're friends**_**'** whined Marianne again.

'_**We're not friends**_**'** C.C. said in her cold voice **'**_**You we're just to take my code and seeing that you won't, we no longer need to interact. Goodbye**_**'** C.C. said as she pushed Marianne from her mind.

'_**Hey!**_**' **Marianne tried to protest but was promptly shut out from her mind.

C.C. sat there in her makeshift prison on her cot that the little princeling made for her thinking about him.

'_He's too different from how Marianne always talked about him in her own way…_' C.C. then smirked '_… I guess I'll be sticking around a while and see how things go. Maybe he can do what his mother refuses if he's already showing this much potential._'

With that thought she continued to eat the delicious drugged laced pizza and slipping from her cognitive mind.

~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~

**May Monday 9, 2010**

**Aeries Palace**

**Study**

As Lelouch was going over his plans of what he was going to do that would take place in the near future, he heard the call of the devil.

"Oh lulu, where are you?" he heard the voice of the Ashford family heir's voice, Milly Ashford, come from the hall.

'_Of all the unholy things to come for me, why is it her that is the only one that actually comes._' Lelouch thought as he tried to hide under his desk that he was at so as to not be seen by Milly.

As soon as he was under the desk the door opened and he was able to see a flash of yellow before he backed up even more under the desk so that she wouldn't see him there. '_Please don't let that she-devil see me_' he thought.

"Hmm, I wonder where that lulu went off to…" Milly mused to herself as she thought '_ah there he is. How cute, he thinks he can hide from me_' she then got a devilish smirk on her lips.

"Oh well, I guess he's not here. I'll go look in the gardens." She made to look like she was leaving the room but instead stood on the outside of the room with the door ajar and was reward a few seconds later with the sounds of someone in the room moving about.

'_Ha, I knew it. Now why would lulu try and hide from little old me? Oh well, a question for another day, time for some therapeutic fun._'

Millicent Ashford but Milly to those that don't want to have broken bones has been friends with the prince since they were babies. Ever since his mother had become a consort they have been playing together. It was her family that supported the women's rise in society. So, ever since then they have been close allies with the vi Britannia branch of the royal family and enjoyed everything that came with it. To make sure that they would continue to enjoy their new station in society they were having talks about a possible arranged marriage between Milly and Lelouch. Of course only Milly knew about this since she was in the habit of eavesdropping and didn't tell Lelouch so that it would be a surprise. Now that Lady Marianne had been killed though, their position has instead become tenuous and it is unknown if the will survive the fallout of it.

"Ah ha, found you!" She exclaimed.

"Gah…" Lelouch said as he jumped and ran behind the chair "… How'd you find me? I thought you couldn't see me from the door." Lelouch said as he tried to hide behind the chair as Milly approached him.

"It was easy of course. You can't hide from me lulu, I know you too well." She remarked.

'_That's true. No matter what I tried she was always there to bug me…_' he thought with a scowl. He then fixed his features and put on a serene smile. "Well considering the circumstances it is good to see you Milly."

"My my, someone is putting up a tough front…" Milly said trying to maintain her usual jubilance "… and here your best friend came here to cheer you up."

Lelouch studied her for a moment while thinking '…_Looks like things aren't going well. Oh Milly._' And said "you don't need to put up a front with me you know. If were friends it goes both ways Milly…" he shocked her because he was able to see through her when it was her trying to cheer him up "… You can come to me when you're feeling down. I know I don't have a lot of sway right know but I will try to help you as best as I can even if it's just a shoulder to cry on you know." He said while having an actual genuine smile for her.

She stood there shocked for a moment as she processed what he said and then she ran towards him and hugged him as she began to cry.

"Oh lulu it's terrible. Grandpa says that the emperor is mad at us and that he is going to revoke our family's noble titles for what happened to your mother…." As she clung to him he patted her head while softly hugging her "… and that we might have to leave. I don't know what to do. I don't want to leave and never see you again."

"It's going to be okay Milly. At the moment I can't do anything for you but I will do what I can to make it better. It won't be too long before I see you again, so think of it more as you going ahead of me in a vacation and I'll catch up to you. So show me the bright joyful mischievous perverted girl that I've come to know and dread to see" Lelouch said with a mock at the end to get her out of her funk which surprisingly did work as she sniffed and chuckled at the jib.

"You always did know what to say to make me feel better…" Milly said and then got a confused look on her face as she said "… what do you mean you'll be behind us? Did the emperor say something to you?"

"… no it's just me being my usual self and trying to protect Nunnally and thinking ahead of all the possible outcomes from this…" he covered quickly "… So until we find out more about what will happen just keep it out of your mind and in the meantime think of things that we can do until you do. I know you will keep on eavesdropping even if I say you shouldn't. I'm sure you can come up with some things to embarrass me in the meantime."

"Alright then, you just remember that you promised…" She then looked at her watch and saw the time "…I need to go back home. Promise me that whatever happens you won't forget about me?"

"I promise milady" Lelouch said with a mock bow.

"My my, ever the gentleman aren't we? Good day to you as well good sir." She said as she curtsied and left laughing feeling better than when she came to visit her friend.

When Milly did finally leave Lelouch to himself, he went right back to preparing for the upcoming events that were going to take place.

'_Right now I just need to get things ready before people start wondering what it is I'm up to._' Lelouch thought.

As he was finishing up his plans and looking for the things that he would need to bargain with each of the individuals that he was having brought to him he decided that he needed to blow off some steam and went in search of something to do.

Since he let go of all the other staff of the palace, it had gotten quite. That day had been fun for him seeing all of the personnel's looks when he dismissed them all except for Cornelia and Gottwald. Unfortunately he was now operating under efficiency and he couldn't expect for Cornelia to protect him by herself even if Gottwald was still out getting his guests.

'_I need to get at least the security back up and running otherwise that old geezer will try and get his people in here…_.' Lelouch thought annoyed about his father's lackeys trying to keep an eye on him.

**Foyer**

As he walked into the foyer Lelouch saw that Cornelia was there with what appeared to be new security guards.

'_What does she think she's doing_' he thought furiously as he walked towards his sister but kept a neutral expression on his face.

"Sister, who are these people?" he asked of her but predictably she wasn't expecting him so soon.

'_damn him. How does he do that…_' thought Cornelia frantically and trying to think of a good excuse.

"New guards since you saw to it that the others left rather hurriedly. You can't expect me to be able to guard the whole place by myself." Cornelia remarked back and crossed her arms over her chest with a huff.

Lelouch just looked at her for a moment and then looked over the new guards. There were three team of six, totaling 18 guards. They were wearing the basic gray guard's uniforms and were of mixed ages ranging from what looked like mid-thirties to those who looked like recent graduates from the academy. It was mostly males with a few women in the mix standing at attention and saluting him and Cornelia. He figured they were capable men if they were chosen by Cornelia but he couldn't trust them since at the moment they were more likely to choose the emperor over him in terms of loyalty.

'_It seems that they will have to do for now. Damn you Cornelia, you know I can't say anything if I don't want to ruin your reputation in front of them. Without your reputation they won't recognize you as your own soldier. I can't wait until I can get over with this subservient role in front of others._' Lelouch thought and then sighed as he said "I guess they will do."

He then walked closer to the stairs and indicated for her to come closer. She grumbled as she got closer to the stairs and when he was at her level he whispered to her "Just make sure that none of them go into my room. I'm going to be looking the doors from now on understand?"

She leveled him a look of mistrust but a slight glare from him cowed her into submission "alright I get it."

"Good, that's all I ask for. Now if you'll excuse me"

Before either of them was able to even move they heard the voice of the one person that was worse than even Milly Ashford in what she would call her best day.

"Oh lulu! Nelly! Guess who?" said the one person that they both did not want to see at the moment.

'_No, not her_' thought Cornelia while Lelouch thought '_why is she here now. Dammit why do memories have to be so damn muddled._'

Nonette Enneagram, a short haired woman whose hair is light green with blue eyes, pushed open the doors and strutted into the room to the sheer horror of Cornelia and the mixture of annoyance and amusement of Lelouch. She was wearing a captain's uniform that was similar to Cornelia's with a green and gold cape to show that she was a knight of the empire. Lelouch had learned over the course of his lives that although Nonette is worse than Milly in some ways, he can at least control her through her vices and fortunately one happened to be with him right there in the form of Cornelia. Although with all the time that he has existed it still hasn't dawned on him that he is one of her vices as well, just one that she likes to indulge requests from.

'_Well there's my darling lulu and lookie here, we have Nelly here as well. This will make things a lot easier_' thought Nonette with a smirk on her face.

She then walked towards the two of them and picked up Lelouch much to his annoyance while he thought '_damn this young age of mine_' and started to coddle him like a baby while saying in a sweet voice "Aww my dear little lulu got scared by those big bad people that hurt his family…" she then glommed him to her chest and despite himself Lelouch enjoyed it "… there, let big sis noni make you feel better." Nonette purred while she gave him a loving look.

"Nonette!..." Cornelia yelled at here slight redness on her face "… there are people present."

Nonette gave her a glare and said "Oh! Seems someone has grown a backbone since I last met them…" Cornelia faltered a bit remembering her days at the academy with Nonette and all the hijinks that the woman caused and got her involved in "… that's better. Besides it's not like I'm doing something that he doesn't like, right lulu?" Nonette asked him.

When both women looked at him he had a dreamy look on his face, the kind that is seen on teenage boys living one of their fantasies. Nonette chuckled while Cornelia sighed exasperated at what is happening in front of her.

"Please at least for proprieties sake act like the knight that you are and treat him like the prince that he is." Cornelia asked of the light green haired woman.

"She's right noni…" they heard from where Lelouch was in Nonette's embrace as Cornelia thought '_at least he knows what's acceptable behavior and what's not_' and Nonette pouted that he was going to complain about the treatment but was slightly surprised and happy by what he said next "… Let's go have fun somewhere else while Nelly here shows these new guys the ropes around here."

Cornelia was flabbergasted by the way that he was acting and felt for some reason like he had only been toying with her before with the whole death of lady Marianne but then she saw him sending her a smirk and then she knew that he was doing it on purpose to get a rise out of her.

'_Why that little twerp. He wants me to take the bait. If that isn't the most juvenile thing ever' _Cornelia thought_. _

Lelouch at the moment was thinking '_hehehe, jealous Cornelia?_'

Nonette on the other hand was thinking with a thoughtful frown on her face '_hmm now that's different. Usually by now he would have demanded that I let him down. What happened must have really affected him._'

"Maybe another time lulu, I was just stopping by to check in on you guys to see how you were. I got a busy day ahead of me full of important military duties…" Nonette said with a smile towards Lelouch and then she turned to Cornelia and whispered into her in ear while she hugged her "… call me if you need anything okay?"

Cornelia was a little surprised that Nonette was concerned about her but managed to say "thanks Nonette. I'll keep that in mind."

As Nonette was leaving Lelouch was right behind her seeing an opportunity to increase his forces and have his father loss one of his future potential ones.

"Nonette, can I talk with you for a second?" Lelouch asked her while keeping up the innocent façade.

"Sure lulu, come here…" Nonette picked him up, then nodded to Cornelia all while ignoring the scandalized looks on the guards faces at how she was treating royalty, and walked towards the door while carrying Lelouch "… what do you want to ask me? Want me to be your girlfriend?" she good naturedly joked while missing the smirk that passed on Lelouch's face.

"No, not that…" Lelouch said while she gave him a puzzled look because she knew that he should still be in the 'girls are icky' phase "… I wanted to ask you if you would come back to visit me soon so I could ask you something important."

"You can ask me now you know" she said.

"No, it's a secret…" he said giving her one of his mischievous smirks of a child with a big secret which warmed the woman's heart and caused a slight jelly effect to her legs "so will you come?"

"Well…" Nonette started thinking it over '_it couldn't hurt to come and spend some time with him to make sure he's okay_' and then said "… I guess I could, but I'm busy this week so how about I come by on the weekend and we can go with Nelly to the hospital to check on your sister and make sure she's okay. That sound good to you my little prince lulu?"

"Yea, thanks Noni" Lelouch said as Nonette put him down by the door and waved bye to him as she left through the front door.

'_Nonette Enneagram, potential future Knight of the Rounds, Knight of Nine, can't have you siding with any of them. With you I will be able to further tie Cornelia to me and with Cornelia already with me you will be less likely to refuse me if only to help her. That's one more piece for me Charles, Schneizel_' thought Lelouch.

As Lelouch stood there watching the one woman that could outdo Milly in causing chaos to happen someone came up behind him.

"What are you planning Lelouch?" Cornelia demanded from him. She didn't like it how he was acting with Nonette. She might be afraid of the woman but she was still her friend and she would still try to protect her if she could.

"Why whatever do you mean sister?" he replied with that damnable smirk back on his face that she has come to recognize as the one he used when he was scheming something that would not bode well for whoever it was directed at.

'_I knew it, he is planning to do something and it involves Nonette_' Cornelia thought.

"If you think I'm just going to sit back and let you do god knows what to my friend" Cornelia began to say.

"Cornelia, remember that you have sworn yourself to me to be my vassal. Though the world will still know you as Princess Cornelia, you will still address me as your lord that I am when we are amongst our comrades…" Lelouch started and then turned to look at her to see her shocked expression "… that's right, did you think it would just be you and Gottwald that would be in my service? No my dear, we need to start to acquire more people to follow with us so that we can be able to do what we need to…" he then turned around to walk back inside but stopped next to her and said one final parting "…or would rather have me leave your friend to fend for herself and have to later kill her ourselves as our enemy?" his tone then turned darker to one that should not be of a child's "… I told you this before, the game is afoot and the pieces are being collected. Its collection time and we need to gather the pieces that we want before they are tainted and we need to destroy them." He then walked away and Cornelia stood there frozen wondering what the days to come would have in store for them.

**A/N: And there it is. Hope you guys liked it. Was the ending any good or not? I admit it is not some of my best work but that was what would come to me. But overall how was it? Need constructive criticism to get the juices flowing. **

**I'm not going to give up things on how things are going to go in the story so you guys are gonna need to read to find out.**

**Now for the harem line up. Keep in mind that at this point this is just those that are already in but there will be more when I can swing it.**

**Now here they are: C.C., Kallen (obviously), Cornelia, Milly, Shirley, Nonette, Cecile, Kaguya (holds writer at gunpoint)**

**Like I said, I haven't fully fleshed out the list as I would like but these are the ones that are already in. If you want to make a suggestion of who to add pm me with who and how that person would meet Lelouch for the first time to get the ball rolling.**

**Now it been pointed out to me that I could do with some help with proofing my work so if anyone's interested in beta'ing for me pm me to let me know that you're interested.**

**Now its review response time:**

**To dw77: of course she's going to be in it. It was a no brainer in my book.**

**To IonicAmalgam: Nope not a repost, but there is another story that has a similar start as this one by D. Vangrave called 17****th**** times the charm.**

**To EnderWiggin190: Not the exact same plotline, just a similar premise. I changed what I could so that it wouldn't be the same, there's only so much that could vary with a set stage, and there will be differences. For my story at this point Cornelia is not an adult. She is 16 at this point so please don't bag on that. As I stated before this is my first fanfic and I'm learning as I go so give me some slack about it.**

**To MM Browsing: right now I don't want to give anything away but I can say that he won't be like he was in the canon timeline. Hope my preliminary line up helps a bit with what you wanted to know.**

**To guest 22: as I said before, I'm learning as I go, but thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in mind when writing and I did try to get a beta but they never responded.**

**That's all for now, I'll try and update as soon as possible. Have patience with me.**

**Read and Review please!**

**Posted: 12/12/12**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Meeting of the Minds, Guard Collecting and Familial Ties**

"**Speech", '**_**thought**_**'**

**{flashback}**

**~ O ~ O ~ Omniscient (3****rd**** person) point of view**

**~ CO ~ CO ~ Cornelia centered point of view**

**Alright guys I say this now, this is mostly a filler and more of Lelouch setting things up. Sorry.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass or any of its characters. This story is only for entertainment purposes and all rights are reserved to the creators of Code Geass and the company that owns it.**

**May Thursday 12, 2010**

**Pendragon**

**Aeries Villa**

**Foyer**

~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~

Jeremiah was returning from the task that the young prince had sent him on the week before. As he gets to the front doors of the villa he lets in the four people that prince Lelouch had requested to be brought to see him. The first person to go in is a 22 year old man with light purple hair and grayish blue eyes with glasses on and wearing a lab coat. He just walked in not bothering to even look impressed by his surroundings because it doesn't interest him. The second person that came in was a 17 year old young lady with shoulder length blue hair and blue eyes dressed in an academy uniform that was nervous about having been brought there. The third person to walk in was a 21 year old Indian woman with long blonde hair, turquoise eyes and also wearing a lab coat who was equally as uninterested about the situation. The last person was a 19 year old woman that was dark skinned with long silver hair tied up in a one sided pony tail and yellow eyes in a military cadet's uniform from west point academy. As the last person entered into the foyer of the villa, a maid appeared by the stairs. The maid, Jeremiah notes, is new.

'_So the staff has already been replaced it seems_' Jeremiah thought before saying "I have brought the people that the prince wishes to see."

"Welcome…" the maid said as she bowed to the guests "… his highness has requested that Earl Lloyd Asplund, Ms. Rakshata Chawla and Ms. Cecile Croomy meet him in the study and asks for Baroness Villetta Nu if she could wait for him in the sitting room." The maid then directs a nervous Villetta to where the sitting room is while Jeremiah leads the other three guests to where the study would be located.

The teenaged Cecile Croomy was stuck walking between an irate smoking foreigner and an angry antisocial foppish young Earl. She was understandably distressed about her position and anxious about why an imperial prince of the empire wanted to meet with her of all people. She was still in high school even though it was her last year there and was barely being noticed in the scientific community for her work. It was her first time at the capital and she was already overwhelmed by everything around her.

The two people on the either side of Cecile were the two top minds of the imperial Colchester Institute. At the moment though, the two were giving off waves of displeasure of having to be around each other. Lloyd had insulted Rakshata's work and declared that he could do what she did better than her and she took great insult to that. She in turn called him the Earl of pudding and remarked that anything that she made would be infinitely better than anything that he made. The two then had made their bet with each other then stormed off in different directions. They were about to leave the institute and go off on their own paths on the day when they were approached by Jeremiah Gottwald and received a summons from Prince Lelouch. They were to go with Jeremiah to meet with the prince and it seemed that he wouldn't be taking no for an answer. So they reluctantly went along with the man for no other reason than to see what it was the prince wanted and be done with it.

Lloyd looked over in Rakshata's direction and remarked "I wonder what a prince would want with us? I would understand if he wanted to talk with me being a genius and all but one could only wonder what he would want with a second hack scientist like you."

'_Why that little_' thought Rakshata before calming down and remarking "What was that Earl of pudding? I couldn't hear you over that rustling of pudding packs that you have with you."

Lloyd's eyebrow twitched and he opened his mouth to remark back when a voice spoke interrupting his comeback.

"Now, now Rakshata, leave Lloyd alone. All great minds have their eccentricities. It's what lets their minds come up with all their great ideas."

The three of them then noticed that they were already in front of the doors that led into the study and that the voice they heard came from inside. They also noticed that Jeremiah was glaring at them, no doubt for the way that they were behaving. Rakshata looked to the side in indifference not caring for propriety, Lloyd just shrugged and smirked at his own behavior and poor young Cecile blushed even though she hadn't technically done anything wrong.

"Come in" the voice, they assumed it was the prince, said.

One at a time they entered into the study to see what it was the prince wanted with them unknowingly walking into the demon's den to play his game once again.

**Study**

After the three of them were in the room, Jeremiah closed the door and stood watch for the duration of the meeting. Cecile noticed that there were three chess boards on the desk and that the desk chair was facing away from them and they couldn't see the prince from where they stood. She saw that the other two weren't going to say anything so she bowed and said "greetings your highness"

The chair then turned around and the three were slightly surprised that it was a young boy that had called them to this meeting of the minds while Lelouch thought '_the Guren's and the Lancelot's creators and the bridge between the two. So we meet again._'

Lelouch then said "It's fine Miss Croomy; I'm not one for formality."

Lelouch then turned and nodded in both Lloyd and Rakshata's direction acknowledging the both of them "Lloyd, Rakshata"

"Well this is quite the development…" Lloyd said while observing the young prince before him. "…can't say I was expecting for you to be so young."

"Unfortunately I would have to agree with the earl of pudding on this one…" Rakshata quipped making Lloyd's hand twitch at the nickname again "… do you perhaps happen to have an older brother here?"

"No, it was me that called you here talk with. I know that it was unexpected for the three of you but rest assured that I am not wasting your time…" Lelouch then made a sweeping motion with his arm "…please have a seat."

Cecile promptly took a seat. He may have been young but he was still a prince as far as she knew and he was rather cute sitting there in his big chair. She then blushed as that thought occurred to her '_I did not just think that the prince was cute. I mean sure he is but I should not be thinking that._'

"Hmm, well I think I'll pass if you don't mind your highness…" Lloyd said mockingly to the young prince "… I have better things to do." He then heard a growl from behind him which he assumed was from the boy's overenthusiastic guard. '_It seems that this trip was a waste of time after all._'

"I think I'll be going as well if you don't mind" Rakshata said as well beginning to walk towards the door at the same time as Lloyd. '_I could have already been back to India by now and started on my project._'

Lelouch just smirked, which made Cecile's heart to flutter a little and blush slightly, and said two words that he knew would make the two pause.

"Guren, Lancelot"

And it did make them freeze and turn back around with widened eyes and shocked expressions on their faces.

'_How does he-_'

'_How did he-_'

"Like I said have a seat." Lelouch said with a smirk ever present on his face. The two scientists were now looking at Lelouch with newfound interest and wondering what the boy knew. They walked back and took seats on either side of Cecile still displeased with each other. Lelouch then started to speak.

"I'll be blunt and straight to the point…" Lelouch started "… I want the three of you to work for me."

"…"

The three of them sat there in shocked silence. For Cecile this was an amazing opportunity. She was just a commoner but was always smarter than most. She had hoped that she would able to get someone interested in her research so that she would be able to pursue her interest in science instead of going into another field after she finished school but for a prince to be interested in her work was too much. She didn't know if she could live up to that.

Lloyd and Rakshata though were still thinking about how the prince could have known about the projects that they had just come up with a few days ago.

Rakshata was the first to ask "Why do you want to hire us specifically?" She wanted to get more out of the prince of how he was able to know of her project and how much of it. It would not do if there was an information leak.

Lelouch just stared at them for a moment longer before saying "How about this…" he gestured to the chess boards in front of them "… If I win against the three of you, then you will work for me but if you win then I will tell you what I know and for you Cecile my dear…" Cecile blushed at being called 'dear' by a 10 year old "… I will arrange it so that you will be able to continue your research even if you should choose not to work for me." Cecile sat there shocked and the other two were intrigued by what the prince had proposed to them.

"Do we have a bet?" Lelouch asked.

"You mind if I play white?" Lloyd asked with a smirk on his face while thinking '_Easiest bet of my life. No way will he win_'

Clack.

"Of course not…" Lelouch replied "… I prefer black myself."

Clack.

"Then I'll take white as well" Rakshata said moving a piece on the board in front of her. '_This should be simple enough_' thought Rakshata.

Clack.

Cecile looked unsure of what to do at that moment. She knew either way she would be getting what she wanted, it was only of a choice of working under an imperial prince that would beget more opportunities or try to make it on her own. So she choose the better path.

She toppled her king on her board. She looked up to see the princes face and saw that he was smiling a beautiful serene smile that made her blush. '_Stupid teenage hormones_' she thought.

"Glad to have you aboard Cecile" Lelouch said before going back to the other two games. With nothing better to do Cecile decided to observe the two games and see how they will turn out.

"Mind if we talk while we play your highness?" Lloyd drawled with no respect behind his words which caused Jeremiah to growl again in displeasure.

Clack.

"It's fine Jeremiah…" Lelouch said to calm the man "… and I told you Lloyd, I prefer informality. I don't mind some talk while we play. What would you like to talk about?"

Clack.

"What would a kid like yourself need with a team of scientists working for you?" Lloyd asked while playing against the boy. Again he more felt the glare than saw it from the brute behind them. "It's not like there's anything for you to do at the moment nor do I believe that you have the necessary funds to hire us either."

Clack.

Rakshata silently agreed with the Earl of pudding on that point while making another move after the prince's weak move. Even if the boy did miraculously win against the two of them it's not like he could afford to have them work for him.

Clack.

Lelouch chuckled at their presumption that he would be like any other child that they had met before so he decided to take things up a notch. "Here's an interesting fact that I think would interest you to know…" Lelouch said as he started to play more aggressively against the two that had them playing now on the defensive against him "… there are ways for even a child such as myself to make large amounts of money relatively fast and easy in this society of ours."

Clack clack.

Lelouch then picked up a remote that was by him and pointed to the screen that was on the wall next to the table and pulled up his latest bank statement which gave the three scientists pause while they thought '_being royalty really does have its benefits._'

"I know that this isn't much at the moment…" Lelouch started which caused the three of them to look back at him with disbelieving looks on their faces at him calling that much money 'not very much' and continued "… but no need to worry, this is just the startup funds that I have acquired recently. Which reminds me, Jeremiah do please remind me to get in touch with the royal family's licensing department later. I need my company to be up and running by the time I need for these three to start working on their projects for me."

Clack.

"Yes, your highness" Jeremiah responded also slightly surprised at how fast the young prince was able to get all of this going and wondering just what it was that the prince has been getting up to.

Clack.

"Oho confident are we?" Lloyd remarked even though he was having some trouble gained ground on the board against the prince. "But you still haven't answered my question; what is it that you would have us do if we worked for you? I'm not in the habit of wasting my time you know."

Clack.

"Yes I know…" Lelouch said as he smirked at their valiant effort to still try and win against him "… what I would have Cecile here do is continue her work on energy and when it's possible for her help you with your projects Lloyd. Of course I won't force you and Rakshata to work together; heavens know what trouble that would cause."

Clack.

"Oh? You know of our recent fall out?" Rakshata inquired not expecting for it to have reached the ears of anyone outside of the scientific community.

Clack.

"Of course…" Lelouch said before smirking and saying "… and I also know about what it is the two of you are planning to do."

Clack.

That caused the two of them to freeze up and glare at the prince. '_So he does know about it!_' they both thought and glanced in each other's direction while thinking '_and he knows about his/her project as well, interesting if not a little annoying._'

"Cecile…" Lelouch said to get the young woman's attention "… I wonder what you know of the Ashford's recent development of the knightmare frames?"

Clack.

"The knightmare frames?" Cecile said while thinking back on them "Those new machines that are supposed to revolutionize modern warfare correct?" she asked and received a nod from Lelouch.

"Yes those…" Lelouch said "… would the two of like to enlighten Cecile here on what it is what the two of are going to be attempting to do?"

Clack.

"Oho, I would definitely like to know how it is that you came to know about what it is that we were planning, your highness…" Lloyd said while leveling another glare at the boy for knowing things that he shouldn't know about.

"I would like to know about that as well…" Rakshata said while taking a frustrated drag of her pipe while thinking of whom it was that leaked information to the boy and who else knew of her plans "… information leaks are not something that I would be fond of having going into my project."

Clack.

"Oh no worries there I assure you..." Lelouch said while giving an 'I know something that you don't' smirk to the two of them "… your plans won't be reaching anyone that I don't want to know about. Right, Jeremiah?"

"I will remove anyone in the way of your goals your highness" Jeremiah responded while saluting.

"See, no worries…" Lelouch said "… now then I think it's about time for me to bring an end to these games don't you?"

He then moved the king piece on both boards causing for Lloyd, Rakshata, Cecile and even Jeremiah to raise their eyebrows in confusion.

Clack.

'_He's moving the king in to attack?_' the four of them thought.

"Ah your highness…" Cecile began to say.

"It's fine Cecile…" Lelouch said to the blue haired beauty in front of him "… It's time to finish this" as he said that Lloyd and Rakshata noticed a predatory glint in the boys eye's and started to wonder where exactly it was that the money came from.

Clack.

"If I may…" Rakshata began to say "… where exactly did you say that you acquired the funds for your little projects?"

Clack.

"I didn't…" Lelouch said with his smirk still in place "… but if you must know, there are places in this empire of ours where one could bet in high stakes games to get what they want. For example, did you know that there are people out there who would bet quite handsomely for the life of a prince of the empire?" That got the people in the room to freeze at what the boy had said. It sounded to them like an underground gambling den and he had just implied that he had gone to one and bet his life for money. "I must say that it was indeed quite interesting to find out what others are willing to pay for one's life."

Clack

"Your highness, please tell me that you didn't?!" Jeremiah screeched hysterical that Lelouch would do something like that. He was also wondering if Princess Cornelia knew about this.

"It's fine Jeremiah. I'm here am I not?" Lelouch said knowing how Jeremiah would react to that.

Clack.

Meanwhile the others were wondering what it was that they got themselves into.

Clack.

"I do believe that, that is check mate…" Lelouch said which made the three sitting in front of him to blink and look down at the boards and indeed they had just lost the game "…Now do we have a deal?"

"…"

Lloyd and Rakshata were unsure of what to do at the moment. They didn't have to honor their agreement with the boy but now that they knew that he wasn't above betting his life in high stake games they weren't sure if it would be safe for them to back out now.

"Hmm, unsure huh…" Lelouch said and then he leaned back in the chair which made him look like the little evil mastermind that he was which just made him more interesting to Lloyd.

"Well how about this…" Lelouch said "… I know what you're like Lloyd and because of that I know where to get the perfect biological component for that machine of yours and I can assure you that he will be in my encampment and will not be switching allegiances to others like say Schneizel…" Lloyd jerked at that '_he knew who I was going to turn to did he_' he thought.

"…and for you Rakshata, the pilot that I have in mind would be the living embodiment of the crimson lotus that you want to show the world with your machine" he finished and saw that both Lloyd and Rakshata were both now grinning.

'_It seems that I've caught their interest._' Lelouch thought while smirking.

"What I ask for in exchange for letting the both of you build what you want without the problem of red tape or having to find ways to get the funds…" at this Lloyds grin practically ran from ear to ear and Rakshata was smiling with her pipe in mouth "… is your loyalty and for you to build me this" he then picked up the remote again and pointed it to the screen which flicked to a blue print of a third machine which made the three of them widen their eyes again. It would seem that this day would be full of surprises for them.

"Does that unit have energy based technology?" Cecile asked in wonderment seeing what she had been working to prove in her latest paper and would have hopefully gotten the attention of someone in power to further fund her project.

Lloyd and Rakshata were speechless because what they saw what this unit had were ideas that they had been toying with recently and would not have had any practical applications for a few years at least. Then the screen blacked out and they saw that the prince had turned off the screen before they could see any more of it.

"Of course you can work on yours first. There is no hurry at the moment on that one. It will require that the three of you to play nice together…" that earned him disbelieving snorts from both scientists and caused Cecile to look at the two of them with a confused look on her face "…so it will have to wait until your less hostile and less likely to cause any serious harm to each other. Now do we have a deal?" Lelouch asked them again.

"Well I'm in…" Lloyd said in his usual foppish manner "… you're a lot more interesting than I thought you would have been. It will be nice to not have to deal with the usual red tape that comes with other avenues."

"Seems interesting enough…" Rakshata said while taking a drag from her pipe "… I guess I'm in as well, as long as I don't have to work alongside the Earl of pudding."

"No problem…" Lelouch said and then he remembered how Lloyd got on Cecile's nerves "… and I will like to apologize now for any hardships that may come up in the future Cecile." He said to her with an apologetic smile on his face.

"Umm, it's okay?" she said with a confused look on her face wondering what it was that had the prince prompting him to apologize to her. She then a snort from prof. Rakshata's direction and wondered what that was about.

'_At least the boy knows what it is that he is dealing with_' Rakshata thought.

"I believe that is everything for now…" Lelouch said as he got down from his chair '_damn this small body_' and went to the other side of the table "… I'll contact you when I have everything ready which should be in a few days, a week at the most. Lloyd..." he offered the man a slight nod because he already knew an offered handshake will be turned down "…ladies…" he gave the both of them slight bows before gesturing towards the door where Jeremiah opened it and waited for them "… until next time."

Lelouch watched as the three scientists were led out by orange boy while he contemplated about how to deal with the young Villetta.

'_Well that went as well as one could hope for. At least I won't have to worry about Schneizel getting his hands on Lloyd and Cecile now. Now how to deal with Villetta? Guess I'll go see her first_' Lelouch thought.

He saw Jeremiah coming back from leading the other three out and decided to proceed to the sitting room to see how he will deal with Villetta in this timeline.

**Sitting Room**

While Lelouch made his way to the sitting room where Villetta was waiting for him, the said women was having a mild freak out moment.

'_Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!_' Okay maybe not so mild.

'_What could a prince want with me? I just joined the academy; I haven't done anything that would warrant for any of the royals to single me out. Oh my god, what if there's been some new rules regarding my family's nobility since I started basic training? What if they called me in here to revoke it? What will I tell my parents? This cannot be happening_' thought Villetta frantically.

As she was having her freak out, Lelouch was coming into the room and saw her fidget around in her chair nervously waiting for him.

When she saw him walk in with Jeremiah behind him she immediately stood up from the chair and bowed deeply to him and said "your highness. I understand that you wished to see me."

Lelouch just looked at her for a moment before smirking and thinking '_always did like her subservience. I guess I'll keep her around for now._'

"Yes that's right…" Lelouch said as he headed to sit down in the chair that was across from the one that Villetta was sitting in "… I understand that you have just recently joined the military and have just started your training at military officer's academy at west point. That is quite the accomplishment for someone whose family has only just gotten their noble titles a generation ago…" he gave a small clap for her hard work "… congratulations."

"Thank you, your highness. My parents are quite proud of what I have been able to do for the empire…" Villetta said even though she felt weird talking with a boy and having him congratulate her "…might I inquire about what this visit pertains to your highness?"

"Straight to the point huh…" Lelouch said while chuckling a little "…alright then, I wanted to ask you if you would be interested in joining my royal guard once you finish your training at the academy " Lelouch said effectively shocking the woman speechless.

Villetta didn't know what to say. To be asked to be a part of the royal guard to one of the imperial royal family is considered one of the greatest honors that one could achieve. She wanted to continue to rise in society but wasn't sure if she was up to something like this.

"Your highness, that is a great honor, but why would you choose a cadet like me for something like that?" she asked confused.

"I see great potential in you…" Lelouch said internally chuckling about the situation "… I'm sure you have heard what happened here recently and it has prompted me to have to look for capable people to protect me and my sister so that it doesn't happen again" as he said this he made a pained face to appear like he was worried about what would happen.

Villetta nodded her head and understood what the prince was going through. It had only been a little over a week since the assassination of the imperial consort lady Marianne. He was trying to secure that nothing more happened to him or his sister and was looking for people that he could trust. What she didn't notice was that the prince was fighting to keep a smirk off his face as he thought '_that's right, take the bait._'

Making up her mind, she stood up from the chair and then kneeled to the prince as she said "Then allow me to pledge my loyalty to you, you highness, to protect you and your sister from harm."

"So I can take that to mean that you have accepted to join my guard when you finish with training…" Lelouch asked and received a nod in return "…good. Jeremiah here will brief you on what you need to know for now. He will also be on my royal guard along with you so get to know him as well as you can. That will be all for today. When you are done with training report back to me so that we can have you can begin your duties on my guard."

"Yes your highness" Villetta said as she rose from her kneeling position and saluted him before turning and heading out the door behind Jeremiah.

Lelouch meanwhile stayed sitting there in the chair basking in a job well done. He had secured the loyalty of one of the most annoyingly persistent women that he had ever met. He still remembered how he was never able to be rid of the women and how she had contributed to his downfall the first time he tried to take revenge for what had happened to his sister and try to make a gentler world for her. Since then he has made sure that she has not been able to be with Ohgi. He doesn't see why they should get to be together when they had contributed to his downfall the first time around.

'_Ungrateful traitorous bastards_' he thought.

No matter how much time passes that is one wound that will never completely heal and with good reason too. He had known nothing but betrayal since that first time that he went up to the emperor and had demanded justice for what had happened to his family.

Jeremiah then came back into the room, so Lelouch got up from the chair and indicated Jeremiah to follow him.

**Study**

They entered the study and Lelouch went to sit down at the desk. After h sat down he noticed that Jeremiah had a pensive expression on his face.

'_Looks like he has some things that he wants to talk to me about, I guess I might as well get what I can out of the way now_' thought Lelouch.

"Yes Jeremiah…" he said making the man jolt a little at being addressed "… was there something that you wished to talk to me about?"

"Yes your highness…" Jeremiah began "… I hope I'm not being to forward but did you really go to an underground gambling den? If it was funds that you wished to procure, I'm sure that his majesty would have provided if only asked…"

"I will say this now…" Lelouch began "… There will never be a time where I will turn for help from anyone, is that understood Jeremiah?" He waited for Jeremiah to acknowledge what he said before continuing.

"I prefer to be self-reliant and that means that I will do things my own way. I will tell you this now, there will be times in the future where I will do things that you will not agree with; don't deny it, I can tell already that there are things that you don't like about how I am dealing with those of a lower station, I just hope that you will have enough faith in me to still follow my lead in accomplishing the goals that I have set for myself. Is that alright with you Jeremiah?"

"Of course your highness..." he said while lifting his arm to cross it over his chest and bowed to the princeling "… it was not my wish to question you, I was just worried of what would have happened if things turned for the worse."

"And for that Jeremiah you have my thanks…" Lelouch said with an appreciative smile on his face "…there are not that many that would be more worried for my well-being than my station. For that I will have as the captain of my royal guard. I know it's not much at the moment but I hope it's enough for now."

Jeremiah was left speechless as he was just appointed as the head of the prince's guard, an honor second only to a being appointed as a knight of honor.

"I am unworthy of such an honor, your highness…" Jeremiah began humbled by the boys trust in his abilities to protect him and his sister "…I will do my best to live up to your expectations, my prince."

"When were alone with those that I trust you can address me as Lelouch, Jeremiah. You've earned it with your loyalty. I know that you will make a spectacular captain to my guard. For now we have business to attend to with the Ashford's and to get to the licensing department at the palace. Inform Cornelia to meet me at the door and get the car ready to go if you will."

"Yes my prince" Jeremiah said and then left to go do his duties for the prince while Lelouch stayed there to get things ready for his discussion with the head of the Ashford family and the paperwork for Cornelia to turn in for him at the palace.

~ CO ~ CO ~CO ~ CO ~CO ~CO ~ CO ~ CO ~CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~

**Limousine**

Cornelia sat waiting in the limo for her little demon of a brother to come. Jeremiah had found her giving the new guards their assignments at the villa. He has told her that Lelouch had asked for her to go with him to visit the Ashford family and to finalize paperwork for a company. She still didn't know what it was that he was doing but it seemed that it was going to be something big as far as she could tell.

She then saw him coming out the front door with that guard right behind him. Lelouch stopped and turned and addressed him and it seemed that he did not want to do what her brother had told him to nut relented nonetheless and saw Lelouch continue to the limo.

When he got on and closed the door she asked "leaving your new pet Lelouch?"

"Hello to you as well Cornelia. I asked for Jeremiah to stay behind today to make sure no one goes into my room like I had mentioned to you before. Just a precaution." He said while looking like he was enjoying their little verbal spar.

Cornelia decided to leave that subject for another time but made a mental note to look around her brothers room at a later time to see what it is that he is trying to hid, and instead decided to ask why they were going to see the Ashford's.

"Mind telling me why we are going to the Ashford's Lelouch?"

Just going to make a business proposal to Ruben that will be beneficial for his family." He told her which confused her because last she heard the Ashford's were fine and wondering what would make him think they would take him seriously.

"Lelouch, I highly doubt that they will be interested in what you have to offer them. They have done well for themselves with those machines that your mother help them develop." She told him.

"That was before the assassination…" he said as he leveled a look to her "… now they are on a rocky slope and continue to slide down it. Soon the emperor will be taking their noble titles and that will leave them more vulnerable. I'm just going to offer a deal for some assistance in some projects that I want in the works."

"And I'm guessing that you know this because you already know what's going to happen…" Cornelia said sarcastically and then after Lelouch nodded "… you know that you just sound crazy to me right? Dammit, why am I still listening to you when I should have you looked at by a doctor?!"

"One, you pledged your honor to acknowledge me as your boss and two, you care about Euphie's safety to not just write it off as a joke that easily."

Cornelia sat there for the rest of the trip going over all the information that she has been getting from Lelouch. In all honesty she still didn't want to believe him because it is easier and less likely to tarnish her majesty's image. Also because what he has been telling her would fundamentally rock universal truths that everyone lives by and would mean that her brother lives above the rest of the people, her included, and that her world would begin to crumble around her. She of course has been looking into what he has said discreetly so as not to raise suspicion about what it was that she knew.

She had found that there were irregularities to some of the royal family's documents. Some of them seemed as if they were cut off and documents were missing but when she asked they had told her that it was all there. So it seemed that there indeed was something they was being hidden but she did not have definitive proof of what.

For the rest of the ride they rode in stressed silence to the Ashford's. Once they got to the gates of the Ashford home they were welcomed by one of the servants employed by the Ashford family and she took note that it was a number. She never did understand the Ashford's and their eccentricities to surround themselves with the lowly numbers instead of other Britannian's.

Once inside they were taken to the study where they found Ruben there wating for them.

"Your hgihnesses…" Ruben says as he bows to them to show respect to royalty as well he should Cornelia thought. She was still investingating into the murder of lady Marianne despite what her brother has told her and the man in front of her was still on her suspect's list albeit very low on it. "… What can I do for you?"

"Hello to you as well Ruben…" the Ashford patriarch arched an eyebrow at the way that the boy was acting "… I came to see if we could work out a deal?"

At that the man's eyes widened and then just as fast narrowed obviously thinking what it was that the boy was after and Cornelia still couldn't figure what either herself.

"Prince Lelouch, I'm sure that you have heard of all the things that have been going since your mother's assassination…"he said knowing that the boy knew as well but not knowing what the boy was up to "… and as you can tell the Ashford's are well on to ruin."

Cornelia had indeed taken note of her surroundings and had noticed there the place had seemed sparser than she had last remembered. The Ashford's were always the flamboyant types.

"Yes I know…" Lelouch said like nothing had actually happened "… Which makes it now the best time for me to start making my moves to ensure my and Nunnally's survival in the hyenas den. Which is why I have come to you t offer you the same help." Lelouch finished shocking both Ruben and Cornelia. It now dawned on Cornelia that he planned to have the Ashford's as his allies whether or not they would be able to retain their noble status it seemed.

This was something that she could not support and began to say so "…Lelouch, I don't think…"

But was cut off by Lelouch "… I'm doing this regardless of what you think Cornelia, so I would appreciate for you to not interfere."

Cornelia stood there in a staring match with her brother with Ruben there to see the royals disagree about something that seemed that would now involve his family.

"It is an honor that you would want to us to sponsor you Lelouch but as you probably already know that our standing in the court is shaky at best now and would be a hindrance than an asset to you." Ruben told the young man.

"I have already told you Ruben, that doesn't matter. Your family had supported our family's rise and now I wish to return the favor to you. Do not worry, it might not be now but this partnership will benefit the both of us. So what do you say?" Lelouch said while extending his arm out and up to take the man's hand.

Ruben hesitated for a second but decided to go for it because honestly the man had nothing else to lose and he had seen the fire in the boy's eyes that he would see them through this.

Meanwhile Cornelia just stood there behind Lelouch looking even more worried than before about what her brother was doing and whether or not she should be doing something.

Lelouch then motioned for Cornelia to close the door and turned to sit down at a chair and asked Ruben "I was wondering if you ever thought of opening a school Ruben? If not I have the perfect place in mind for one."

'_Huh?! A school?!_' was the same thought going through both Cornelia's and Ruben's mind at that.

**A/N: Please don't hurt me! Sorry for the long wait in update, just had a hard time coming up with a way to finish this chapter. **

**But done with that, what did you guys think, good? no good? I would really like to know but remember no flames.**

**Again I am still looking for a beta to look over my story before I post up here. If your interested pm me. **

**And I swear the confrontation between Lelouch and his dad is coming up soon so tick around.**

**And Like I have been saying guys, Please review! I like reading them and finding out what you guys think. It does help get these chapter's out faster.**

**With that till next time.**

**Please read and review!**

**Posted: 2/12/13**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Royalty visits their fallen, a Knight's promise, the Warrior Princess questions, the Trouble-maker visits and the Witch awakens**

"**Speech", '**_**thought**_**'**

**{flashback}**

**~ O ~ O ~ Omniscient (3****rd**** person) point of view**

**~ CO ~ CO ~ Cornelia centered point of view**

**~ L ~ L ~ Lelouch centered point of view**

**~C.C.~C.C.~ C.C. centered point of view**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass or any of its characters. This story is only for entertainment purposes and all rights are reserved to the creators of Code Geass and the company that owns it.**

**May 14, 2010 **

**Saturday**

**Pendragon**

**Pendragon Hospital**

~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~

As Lelouch entered the hospital with Cornelia on his right, Euphie holding onto his left arm and Jeremiah behind them keeping an eye out for potential attackers, he thought over everything that has been going on. It has been a couple of days since Lelouch's meeting with Ruben Ashford and the both of them were able to iron out the details pertaining to Lelouch's plans of merging the Ashford foundation with the company that he was planning to start up which they decided to call the Ashford and L.L. foundation and the school. Officially the company will be under Ruben's leadership with a shadow partner which will of course be Lelouch heading mostly the R&D department. They were also able to work something out to build a school and Ruben will be undergoing the task of finding nobles that are willing to sponsor this as governors with Lelouch looking for a location to build said school. Afterwards Lelouch and Cornelia had left to go turn in the papers to start up the company.

Lelouch has also been able to get more money for the company doing what he does best, although with less risk while under Jeremiah's ever watchful eyes.

Today however Lelouch has come to the hospital to check in on the progress of his sister. He already knew how his sister was doing of course by having bribed the people that were in charge of watching over her to keep him update and to keep everyone except Euphie, Cornelia and him out of her room, although he couldn't do anything if the emperor choose to visit which he doubted, and when she will be well enough to wake but he still had appearances to maintain. God how he missed his geass so that he could make it easier to make these people to do what he wants, instead of going through all of this trouble. Today however he had other reasons to be there.

First off was that his sister Euphie would not stop bothering him about how a bad brother he was being by not coming to visit his sister more and had guilt tripped him into coming more often. It's not that he doesn't care about Nunnally, but more like he was protecting himself from having to see his sister like that and not being able to do anything about it. Another reason for visiting was to gain another piece to his side but failing that he would at least make sure that she would stay neutral and would see things his way when would need her.

As they got closer to the intensive care ward where Nunnally was recuperating they heard a familiar voice from behind them that belonged to someone that had promised to be there and Lelouch's second reason to be there.

"Hiya Nelly, Lulu, Euphie, Jeremy" greeted Nonette Enneagram with their nicknames as they turned around seeing her and she picked up Lelouch and hugged him with his face to her chest as her usual perverted way she greeted him.

'_Nonette'_ thought Cornelia worriedly and shooting nervous glances at Lelouch and a slight pink color on her face at seeing what Nonette was doing. The women never learned decorum.

'_Oh, it's Miss Nonette_' thought Euphie then proceeded to pout because her lulu was being handled by another woman that could be her rival for his attention. Then she remembered that the focus was on her younger sister at the moment.

'_The_ _devil'_ thought Jeremiah with dread and a scowl on his face with the thought of having that woman around and debating internally how to get his young lord away from the she demon.

'_Good'_ thought Lelouch while he smiled devilish and was able hid it by burying his face in Nonette's cleavage.

"Glad to see you Nonette. I'm sure Nunnally would appreciate that you came to see her" Lelouch said to the light green haired woman when he lightly pushed off her chest while giving her slight stimulation without the others noticing what he was doing other the woman herself. Her only reaction was a slight low moan and a widening of her eyes and looking at him questioningly if he knew what it was he was doing.

"No problem…" Nonette said with a faint blush on her face while putting him back down and standing straight and motioning for them to continue to Nunnally's room "… I did say that I would come didn't I?"

"That you did…" Lelouch said to her as they walked "… and I thank you."

'_What are you playing at Lelouch_' thought Cornelia while she eyed him and Nonette who was also glancing at him with those perverted eyes of hers.

They then arrived to Nunnally's room. Euphie went in first and went straight to her sister's side. The room was actually split into two with a parting wall in the middle with a large window looking towards the bed. Nunnally was currently inside a capsule bed that had forced into a coma so that it would allow for her body to heal before they had to deal with the psychological problems that the girl could have.

Meanwhile the other three individuals were on the other side of the wall simply looking on at the girl and her sister. It was a while before anyone said anything and it was Nonette who broke the silence first.

"What did the doctors say?" she asked looking to the other royals with worry etched on her face.

"She probably won't be able to walk anymore…" Nonette looked horror stricken as she turned back to look at the fragile young girl in the capsule '… and from what they have seen in cases similar to this is that there might be other side effects when she wakes up" Lelouch said while still looking towards his sister with Cornelia looking away in shame for not being able to do anything and Jeremiah looking like he would sooner strangle himself for letting this happen even though he knows there was nothing he could have done.

"Would it be fine with you if we went somewhere else to talk Nonette?" Lelouch asked the woman while he looked away from Nunnally with a strained expression and thinking '_It never is easy having to see someone you care about like this_.'

"Isn't here fine?" asked Cornelia trying not to look too suspicious about his behavior.

"I wouldn't want to worry Euphie needlessly if she happened to overhear us" Lelouch explained to her and then looked back to Nonette to receive her answer.

"Alright, that's fine with me" Nonette said as she walked towards the door.

"Hold on I'm not comfortable with the two of you going off on your own…" Cornelia said not wanting Lelouch to be alone with Nonette because of what he could say and cause problems for all of them "… you don't know if there are any potential dangers here. It hasn't been that long since the assassination."

Lelouch turned his head sideways and looked at her from the corner of his eye scrutinizing her before he turned towards Jeremiah and said "would you mind and stay here and keep an eye on my sisters Jeremiah."

"It would be my honor my prince" Jeremiah said crossing his arm over his chest.

"Good…" Lelouch said as he started to walk again "… shall we Nonette, Cornelia."

The two women then followed out the door behind him, one feeling curiosity and the other uncertainty not knowing what to expect.

**Hospital Room Down the Hall from Nunnally's **

First to enter the room was Lelouch pulling in Nonette behind him by the hand and finally Cornelia. As Cornelia entered the room she closed the door and stood by it in case anyone got the smart idea of trying to eavesdrop in their conversation.

Lelouch went towards one of the two seats that were in the room and motioned for Nonette to sit in the other. Nonette was still confused by all of this cloak and dagger stuff but complied anyways to see what it was her favorite little princeling wanted.

Nonette then noticed that he was sitting more regally than he was supposed to be able to and only furthered to confuse her so she decided to start the conversation.

"So what is it that the royal family's young chess prodigy wanted to talk to me about? Did you want me to tell you some more embarrassing stories about Nelly over there from our academy days, hmm?" she questioned him.

"So it was you who told him about the locker room incident!" Cornelia yelled in outrage, her face turning crimson remembering the said incident and how Lelouch had asked her about being afraid to bend over in the bathroom because of what Nonette had done to her. She still hasn't forgiven Nonette for that and never would. '_Damn perverted woman._'

"I would have found out eventually Cornelia…" Lelouch said with a smirk while looking at her "…it's not like Nonette here is the royal family vault. You can't expect for her to hold onto that information forever."

'_Something is definitely up. Since when did little lulu start calling Cornelia by her name_?' thought Nonette.

'_Looks like she's starting to get suspicious, guess I better get on with it_.' thought Lelouch.

"There is a reason why I wanted to talk with you as you have probably already guessed Nonette" he began saying.

"Yes that's true but what I don't get is why the so serious atmosphere …" she said and then her eyes narrowed in suspicion "… and why does it suddenly seem like there's something different in the way that you talk and act."

"Ah so you did notice huh?" Lelouch said with a faked helpless tone that tugged at both women's hearts. Cornelia knew he must have been faking but it was so real that she wasn't sure.

Nonette at the meantime got up and went closer to the boy get him to feel better and was chastising herself for her internal thoughts. "What's going on little Lulu? You can tell big sis noni, you know that right?"

Lelouch had hugged her and nodded his head against her chest, once again making her feel good and she wasn't sure if it was intentional or not.

"It's just that I'm worried that the emperor doesn't care about us anymore" he said whispered with a sob at the end.

"Of course he does little Lulu. He's your dad; of course he cares about you. He's just busy with all that's going on."

He then looked up to her and gave her his best injured puppy look which he knew would get to her and said "You sure Noni? What do I do if he doesn't? It'll just be me and Nunnally"

"Of course he will, and you still have me here by you. If nothing else I promise to you here that I will always be here to protect the two of you and I'll be sure to drag Nelly along with me for the heck of it" she said with that devil may care smile that she was known for.

"Thanks Noni, I'm happy to know that you will always be by my side" Lelouch said with a toothy smile and still subtly giving ministrations to her chest causing her to get all hot and bothered causing her to think that it was because of him giving her that happy look on his face.

'_Guess its official…_' thought Nonette '… _I'm a pervert…_' She then looked at his innocent smiling face again and blushed some more '_I guess all things considered it's not too bad being one with him around._'

Meanwhile Cornelia who was still by the door was looking on at the scene with apprehension. Here was the one person she was scared of beside her father and she was just wrapped around Lelouch's little finger with his little act and that was what it exactly was, an act. He was just playing to Nonette's emotions and had twisted it around in his favor by getting her to agree to help him if anything should happen.

'_What in the world is he? He's doing things that full grown men have had difficulty with so easily that it's just pathetic…_' thought Cornelia worried what was in store for the world when her half-brother got rolling on his plans '_… Lelouch, how can you so easily play with other people's emotions as if they were putty in your hands?_'

The person in question in the meantime was laughing hysterically on the inside at how easy it was to get Nonette to fall into his wounded animal trap. He was sure he would have had to give away some information if it hadn't worked but this went a lot easier than predicted. Now he had another piece added to his side that he could keep in the enemy's camp with none the wiser.

He then noticed the look on Cornelia's face and frowned slightly. That had been a miscalculation on his part in that he had not expected her to come with them while he worked on Nonette but overall it was fine. It seemed having her here might have contributed some to getting Nonette on his side. He made a slight gesture that she saw that was for her to not say anything. Being the soldier that she was she of course did as she was told and the moment was able to play out.

'_I've got my inside woman, now to get moving on to other projects…_' thought Lelouch while he was still embraced by Nonette '_… although I can spend another minute or two here._'

**Nunnally's Room**

Meanwhile back with the two princesses' and the loyal knight we find Euphiemia by her sister's side and Jeremiah by the door to give the girl some sense of privacy. Although on the outside little Euphie seemed to be calm, on the inside was a completely different story. She was experiencing a maelstrom of emotions about all that has happened to two of her favorite siblings not including her own sister.

'_Why did this have to happen? Why would anyone do this to Nunna? She hasn't done anything to anyone to have this happen to her_…' were the thoughts running through the mind of the third princess as she gazed at her half-sister in her little capsule that was helping her get better.

She then turned and looked towards Jeremiah and asked "why would anyone want to do this to another person lord Jeremiah?"

Jeremiah wasn't sure how to answer that question. How does one tell a 9 year old the workings of the real world?

However he was saved from having to answer the question when the door opened and in came Lelouch while saying "I wouldn't know Euphie, but all we can do at the moment is wait and hope that she gets better…" He smiled gently towards the pink princess who returned the smile. She then turned back around to continue looking at her sister. Lelouch meanwhile whispered to Jeremiah "… after she does get better we'll of course hunt down the ones responsible for this like the animals they are and make them suffer slowly wont we Jeremiah?"

"Of course my lord…" Jeremiah responded "…it would be my pleasure to help you in your desires." They both wore savage smiles that would make a normal person shiver at but luckily no one was looking in their direction.

Euphie then remembered that they were missing two people to their little group. She turned back around missing the savage smiles that the boy prince and his guard were sporting and asked "lulu, where is big sister Cornelia and miss Nonette?"

"Hmm, those two..." Lelouch puts his pointer finger to his chin and pretends to think it over "… ah that's right Nonette said she was leaving and Cornelia said that she would see her down to the first floor before she came back. Why?"

"No reason, just wondering where they went…" Euphie said as she went back to looking at her sister "… come here and sit next to me to comfort Nunnally."

"Whatever you say Euphie." Lelouch responded with his ever present smirk as he sat next to her.

~ CO ~ CO ~CO ~ CO ~CO ~CO ~ CO ~ CO ~CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~ CO ~

**Hospital lobby**

Cornelia and Nonette were stepping out of the elevator heading towards the front doors. Part way they stopped and turned and faced each other.

"Are you sure you need to head back?" Cornelia asked of her tormentor "You didn't even say goodbye to Euphie."

"Yea, I had to sneak out just to come today…" Nonette said "… I wasn't about to break a promise with his luluness. I'll just apologize to her the next time I see her. You just take care of yourself and those cute little siblings of yours alright."

Of course I will…" Cornelia huffed crossing her arms "…I don't need you to remind to do that."

"Of course" Nonette said as she began to walk away.

"Nonette" Cornelia called out which caused the light green haired women to turn back towards her "…are you sure about what you did back there with Lelouch? You know that an oath, however rudimentary, is taken seriously and you will be expected to carry it out. You did have a witness after all."

Nonette was quite for a moment looking back at Cornelia before she smiled a gentle smile and said "Yea I'm sure. You know that I always had a soft spot for the kid, but today when I had him in my arms and he looked to me with worry I just felt like taking away his worry and be there for him. Besides it's not like anything will happen to him for a while. Considering what just happened, he will be well protected for a while. Besides, he's still just a kid so it should be a while before his majesty can do anything with him."

Cornelia was silent for a moment observing her friend. She did genuinely seem like she was happy with the choice that she had made. She then sighed '_seems that I can't do anything now. Not unless I want to cause a rift between us. She really does seem happy with her choice…_' she then got a sentimental smile on her face '_…I just hope we don't come to regret the decisions that have made in following Lelouch._'

"Alright I guess, can't do anything to change your mind huh?" she asked Nonette.

"Nope" she responded to Cornelia with the biggest smile that she could give her.

"(sigh) fine then, I'll see later then. Try and not get in too much trouble."

"I can't make any promises" Nonette said as she turned around and waved goodbye as she walked away.

Cornelia gave her one last look then went back to the elevators to go back to her siblings and visit in with Nunnally before leaving. '_What will I do with you Lelouch? Or are you even Lelouch anymore? Can I trust you to keep your word to protect Euphie? I don't even know what to think anymore._' With one last sigh, she got back on the elevator and went back up to where her siblings were waiting for her.

~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~

**Nunnally's Hospital Room**

When Cornelia opened the door to the room she found Lelouch just sitting there next to her sister looking at Nunnally through the glass of the capsule. She hadn't really gotten a good look at Nunnally earlier because she had been by the door on the other side of the wall but now she could see that Nunnally was wrapped up in bandages. She also had IV drips placed on her and had her eyes bandaged and wearing a mask to make it easier for the young girl to breathe.

Cornelia just stood there for a while still not understanding why this would happen and what was the point of it.

'_I swear, when I find the ones responsible for this I will make them pay for what they have done…_' thought Cornelia with vengeance in her heart '_if only Lelouch would tell me where I could find them._' She thought with annoyance and shot Lelouch another baleful glare for withholding information from her. She honestly didn't understand if he wanted her for her battle prowess, then he should have already sent her to drag the ones responsible into the light. His response to her inquiry had not satisfied her.

'"_It is not time yet. We wait for the opportune time" Feh, who cares about things like that. I want vengeance now!_' Cornelia thought remembering what he had said.

She then walked over behind her full sibling and half-sibling. She then noticed it. Most wouldn't notice it but as she was a trained soldier with some experience under her belt she was able to notice how Lelouch was tense. His whole body language screamed restrained anger. If she were to look into his eyes at the moment she was sure that they would show extreme hatred. It seemed he truly was restraining himself from going out there and getting the bastard that had done this to his sister.

Euphie of course was oblivious to this even though she was right next to him. She was paying more attention to Nunnally who was the one who needed medical help. The three siblings just stayed there for a while paying vigilance to one of their own who had been maimed and was perhaps the most innocent of the four.

**Aries Palace**

Cornelia was dropping Lelouch back home after their visit to the hospital. She and Euphie had asked him if he wanted to stay with them at the Li Britannia home but he had politely refused saying that he felt better in being in familiar surroundings.

At the moment Cornelia was at the front door dropping off Lelouch while Euphie waited for her in the car. She made a note to remember to have Guildford around more for protection purposes.

"Well Cornelia, until next time" Lelouch said as Jeremiah opened the door for him.

"I need to have a word with you Lelouch. In private" she said while looking in Jeremiah's direction. At that moment there was a ringing coming from inside the house.

"Would you mind getting that Jeremiah?" Lelouch asked of the man.

"Of course my liege" said Jeremiah with a bow and turned to go answer the phone and see who it was that was calling.

"What do you wish to speak about Cornelia?" he asked of his sister.

"Why?" was all that she said.

Lelouch tilted his head to the side and said "why what Cornelia?"

"You know what…" She hissed at him "… why did you feel the need to have Nonette involved in your matters!"

"Why Cornelia, are you jealous that I included someone else into my plans?" Lelouch said as he felt like teasing her at the moment.

'W-w-w-what are you talking about! Idiot!" Cornelia stammered out while flushing a nice healthy red then turned serious while looking at him "I'm just worried what it is that you hope to achieve by doing that to Nonette. I will warn you know, if you cause her any harm I will make you pay, brother or not."

They stared at each other for a minute gauging the others reaction when Lelouch said "Don't worry. I may have plans but I always protect those that are on my side…" he said sweetly before his face turned to that of contempt and fury as he said "…of course as long as they don't betray me first."

Cornelia shivered at the way he said that not all that eager to find out what happens to those that betray him.

"I take it then that you have experienced this in one of your supposed past lives?" she inquired as to verify.

"Very astute Cornelia…" Lelouch said with a slight bow "…yes I have and they lived to regret their decision to turn their back on me."

"You know you still haven't proven to me to actually believe that any of the things you have said are actually real…" Cornelia said trying to get more from this encounter "… at the moment I am more inclined to believe that you just snapped and are now just crazy."

"All in due time Cornelia…" he responded as he saw Jeremiah coming back with phone in hand "that reminds me, I had to get rid of the last batch of people you had here as guards."

"What?!" Cornelia exclaimed "…why would you do something like that!"

"They were unable to pass my little test that I had given them" he said nonchalantly like it was nothing.

"Lelouch, they were there for your protection. You can't just have one man…"

Lelouch cut her off by saying "if they cannot pass a simple test from me then they are of no use to me. Don't worry, I do plan to have more people but of my choosing. Until next time my dear" He said as he walked in and Jeremiah bowed to her as he closed the door on the infuriated second princess.

She just stood there for a few seconds before getting out her phone and calling up Guildford.

Bring… bring…. Bring…

"Yes your highness" responded her knight.

"Guildford, I want you to find out why Lelouch had the guards I had gotten for him removed from the Aries palace as soon as possible."

"Of course your highness" he replied before hanging up to go do her bidding.

'_Goddammit Lelouch, what are you planning_' thought Cornelia before she herd her sister calling her from the car so that they can go.

~ L ~ L~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~

**Aries Palace **

**Main Entrance**

"Who is it Jeremiah?" Lelouch asked.

"It is lord Ashford calling in regards to the company" Jeremiah responded.

"Here let me talk to him" Lelouch said as he reached up for the phone '_damn this puny body_'

"Yes Ruben, what is it?" He asked of the Ashford head.

"Ah Lelouch my boy, I was just calling to ask how you wanted to have documents delivered to you. Seeing as how you didn't use your real name for this am I right to assume that you don't want others to find out about this until later?"

"Heh sharp as ever old man…" said Lelouch as they had a short laugh "… that's right. It's best to keep this under our hats for the moment. I don't want any of the others to catch wind of this just yet."

They both knew he meant the other Royal children, specifically Schneizel, and perhaps the Emperor.

"How do you propose we correspond about matters relating to the company?" Ruben asked the boy hoping for a specific answer.

"Well at the moment I am planning on having the R&D under my supervision in case anyone gets any bright ideas about snooping around what you're doing. They will obviously wonder how it is that you will be able to keep the foundation going and who your partner is. I will then have Lloyd and Cecile transferred to a lab in Japan to be under your supervision with me still supplying the money and the one in charge of them of course so as to make sure Lloyd stays happy. Don't want him going off to another person for funds. As for corresponding I was thinking of possibly having Milly be our go between person. How does that sound?" Lelouch reasoned out to the Ashford Patriarch.

"That was what I was thinking myself…" Ruben responded from his side with a mischievous grin on his face thinking that maybe not everything is lost after all "… I was going to ask her soon if she would be interested in being the one to deliver our messages to us about the goings on of the company."

"Yes it's fine with me…" Lelouch responded with his own mischievous smirk knowing what Ruben had wanted with no worries because it coincided with what he wanted "… but do remember that I will be having an audience with the emperor soon and will be going under an operation to secure my standing in the court."

"Are you sure it is wise to do so?" Ruben questioned the boy. He was confident in his dealings with the boy will pan out but he wasn't too sure about him going and doing something like this. If he doesn't succeed then all of this planning will have been for nothing and it will have only hindered his family even more.

"Yes don't worry. It is better to prove myself to him now rather than wait for him to think that I have no use and would be better off without me and Nunnally. I will see you in Japan when I am done alright?"

"Alright if you're sure, just make sure that you make it out alive boy. There will be too many broken hearts if you don't make it back and I will hunt you down myself if Milly happens to be one of them you know" Ruben told the boy to make sure he got the point.

"Don't worry Ruben; I don't have any intention of dying just yet" Lelouch told the man as he hung up the phone as he got to his study to continue with his planning.

As he sat down at the chair and turned on the computer to look over his plans and schematics for the future because as of the moment there was little he could do but wait for his enemies to catch up to him.

'_Well this has been a fun filled day..._' he thought sarcastically to himself '_… now to get back to doing what I do best._'

~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~

**Midnight**

**Lelouch's Closet**

It had been over a week since the boy had trapped her in his closet and she was finally beginning to get frustrated. At first it had been intriguing and interesting in staying and seeing what the boy had planned for her and what he knew, now though she was seriously thinking of just hitting him over the head and be done with him. Worst of all he had stopped in trying to appease her by no longer bringing her the much desired pizza.

'_That damn brat…_' she thought annoyed with the princeling _'… you don't just give someone pizza that good and then just stop. All you'll get is some seriously pissed of people, in this case an immortal with a mean streak.'_

At the moment C.C. was picking at her locks so that she could get away from the boya and go off on her own as she had planned before the whole getting caught by a brat debacle.

Click.

'_Finally some progress…_' C.C. thought smugly _'…now just for this last one. Honestly, when did Marianne have the time to teach her little brat to take people prisoner? All I ever saw her doing is playing mother when she felt like it._'

Click.

'_Finally…_' she thought as she got up off the little cot the boy had put in there for her to laze around on while he kept her in there '_… now to get the hell out of here. Italy, here I come_.'

She walked to the closets door and then proceeded to open the door slowly so as not to make too much noise. As she opened the door she noticed that it was dark out so she could assume that it already night time. She then did a scan of the room and saw that there was a lump in the bed in the shape of a child. She could only assume that it was the boy since his sister still probably at the hospital after what pintsize did to the girl.

Her face grimaced as she wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. She had seen the girl and her brother playing with their siblings and their mother before and she could honestly say that the girl was one of the most innocent things that she had seen in her very long life, but what's done is done and there's nothing that she could do about it now.

She then focused back onto the boy on the bed and crept up so as to make sure that he didn't wake up.

She smirked.

She was going to teach the boy that there are people in the world that you just don't mess with. She reached for the covers of the bed and then pulled back ready to put her hand on the boy to fed him shock images but froze when she a very important fact about the child in the bed.

It was a girl.

It wasn't just any girl either; it was the prince's blonde playmate, Milly Ashford.

Well that was an unexpected turn of events.

"I would appreciate it if you could keep quiet and not wake her…" she heard the voice of the prince behind her.

Well that was unexpected turn of events number two.

As she turned her head to look at him she saw that he had that blasted dart gun again that was probably filled with more of that tranquilizer stuff in it not too far away from her. He was close enough that she couldn't use the girl as a shield against him, nor was he too close enough for her to be able to make a move on him before she could relieve him of the blasted thing.

It really wasn't her day.

"… It was hard enough in the first place to get her to just go to sleep. Now if you could go back to the closet…" he said to her while motioning back towards the closet. She grimaced as he said for her to go back to the closet and wasn't too keen on having to go back in there. The boy must of noticed her hesitance because he said "… now if you could."

She finally gave up and did what he wanted for now.

~ L ~ L~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~ L ~

As he got the witch back into the closet he couldn't help but smirk at how Milly's sudden showing up at the house had actually been beneficial.

'_Still though…_' he thought back to a grimace ''_…_ _old man Ashford was actually able to surprise me._' He thought back to that afternoon.

**{Flashback}**

_It was a couple of hours after he had gotten back from the hospital visiting Nunnally with Cornelia and Euphie and he was working on setting up the Ashford & L.L. foundation's R&D department in two locations so that Lloyd and Rakshata wouldn't have to work in the same place._

'_Honestly, those two are worse than a couple of children at this point…' Lelouch thought with a thoughtful grimace '… oh well, they are the best at what they do.'_

_As he was getting back to figuring out how much money he was going to need to get them started he heard a loud band from somewhere in the house. As he was getting up from his seat to go investigate what it was he heard the devils voice._

"_Hello?! Where are youuuu?"_

_He froze as a shiver ran up and down his spine 'what the hell is she doing back here?! I thought I dealt with her already.'_

_As he was having his mild freak out, he heard more doors being slammed open. She was probably looking for her next victim. _

'_Poor bastard...' he thought '…doesn't know what's comm- wait a minute, I'm that poor bastard! I gotta hide.'_

_And so began the hunt for Lelouch with the one and only Milly Ashford who doesn't know the meaning of the word quit. Or no for that matter no matter how many times one tries to teach her._

_**A few hours later after being chased through the house and near escapes from the smiling blonde demon was he finally cornered in his own bedroom run ragged and out of breath (the utter shamelessness if anyone ever found out)**_

_And now we find a panting and exhausted eleventh prince backed into his room with the blonde dem-, ahem, what he means is the blonde haired beauty of the Ashford family smiling her devilish smile._

"_There you are Lulu" Milly said all too sweetly for his taste._

"_*pant* what are… *pant*… you doing…*pant* …here… *pant* …Milly?" he asked while trying to catch his breath. _

"_Oh, well last time I was here you were the one comforting me when I should have been comforting you and I didn't feel right just doing that to you." She said with gratitude that he had helped her "So I asked grandpa what I should do and he said that I should return the favor and come here and keep you company until Nunnally can come home." She said as if it was the best idea in the whole world, and to her it probably was. _

'_That damn geezer…' Lelouch thought seething on the inside at the man's audacity '….I ought to belt him one for this. Talk about being pushy'_

"_Thank you for the thought Milly but I think I can manage on my own while Nunnally gets better." He said._

"_Nonsense…" she replied "… you don't need to worry about anything because good old Milly is here to make sure that you don't do anything stupid and make me have to report it back to Nunna when she gets better." She smiled as she delivered her threat to him to let him know that there really was no choice in the matter. She was staying whether he liked it or not, and if he knew what's good for him he better like it. She's Milly Ashford, The fun loving heir of the Ashford's and in the run to be the future Mrs. Vi Britannia._

_That could wait though. For now she was going to have her fun._

"_Now what's this I hear about a school being built by my family and is being funded by you? Before that though I was thinking of a little game that we could play."_

_Lelouch saw that evil glint in her eye that he knew meant that he was about to be the center of one of Milly's first crazy ideas of her life._

'_Why do I like this girl again?' he asked himself not for the first time in his lives._

**{Flashback End}**

She had forced him into playing with her the rest of the evening from cards, to racing (which she won on the account that he had no physical stamina whatsoever), and to his utter pleasure, chess (where he promptly bet her that if she couldn't beat him once in ten games she would agree to turn in for the evening).

Of course after he had trounced her, she got her revenge in the form of having him take a bath with her, which Jeremiah couldn't say no to because it seemed that the girl had recently found some very devastating blackmail on him that she would only be too happy to give to people. Needless to say the man had caved faster than a house of cards.

'_Damn Jeremiah…_' Lelouch thought _"…left me to deal with Milly alone. He's getting fodder duty for what he did. Oh well, in the end she went to bed with minimal fuss with the provision that we sleep in the same bed. Damn woman can be as annoying as the witch when she tries._'

Speaking of witch, his was currently looking at him from her seat on the cot as he kept the gun leveled at her.

~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~

"So what now boya? You going to keep me locked up in here again while you sleep out there with your pretty little friend?" C.C. said mockingly to him. "You know I can get out of here if I want to and I doubt you can stay awake longer than I can. It's only a matter of time before you slip and I get out of here."

"You know, I was planning on waiting until I got older physically before letting you wake up…" Lelouch commented as he looked at her as if he was thinking of what to do with a new playing piece that he was expecting to get "… but seeing how your being unusually willful this time, there's not really much of a choice in the matter. How about we make a little bet …?" He said her name to make sure that she was paying attention.

In response C.C. just grimaced at the fact that he knew her name. She didn't like it one bit.

"I would prefer it if you didn't use my name boya. And what kind of bet are we talking about?"

"The bet's this then. You don't try to punish me for any transgression that you believe that I caused onto you and you will call things even between us if I can show you something that you couldn't believe. Deal?"

"Let me get this straight, if you can show me something that I couldn't believe then I leave you alone to go about your merry way?" he nodded a yes to her "What do I get if I win?"

"I'll let you shatter my mind and you can be on your way to where you want to go."

"Hmm…" C.C. gave it some thought and didn't really see any downside to the bet. She has lived a pretty long time and she has practically seen everything there is to see so there really wasn't anything left for her not to believe. She smiled a feral smile to the boy who had an impassive face in response "deal then. Now let's see this this unbelievable thing of yours."

Lelouch in response lowered his hand that had the gun and raised the other towards her as if he was going to shake her hand.

"Take my hand then and find out" he said as he smirked to her, challenging her to do it.

She just huffed and crossed the room and took his hand in hers.

She should not have done that.

One second they were just standing there doing nothing but holding hands par for the course and the next she was living through memories that weren't hers.

No that wasn't quite right either; the memories were hers but from a different her. One that had lived through more than she already had.

The Shinjuku incident, the contract, the traitorous knight, the volatile loyal red-head, refrain, The Narita mountains, Mao, the massacre princess, the year long wait for her warlock to return, the million zero march, the escape from the forbidden city, the capturing of her warlock's guard, the creation of the UFN, the destruction of the super weapon, the betrayal of the knights, the destruction of the Ragnarock connection, the battle of Mt. Fuji, the zero requiem, her surprise at finding him alive after that, Getting married to her warlock, watching the first person in space, being on the first colony in space and the many repetitions after that of finding fun and intriguing things to be found in the days of peace.

Then it all settled down to a manageable slideshow in her mind as she continued to watch the events that would take place and all that she had done with her warlock by her side keeping his promise of being her equal in everything they did.

She really couldn't believe all of these memories. She had wanted to die for so long but now knowing that there were better days to come, she couldn't find it her to hate her cursed existence anymore. There were things coming that would make things interesting again and she wouldn't have to live through it alone.

The memories then stopped and she was back in that closet holding her warlocks hand as if she hadn't just gotten the download that many would kill for.

"Hello C.C." Lelouch said with that smirk of his that she hated a moment ago but now she was happy to see it because it meant things were well on their way to being interesting again.

"Lelouch" she said back to him before bonking him on the head.

"Ow, what was that for?" He questioned her with a glare as he rubbed his new sore spot on his head.

"Well let's see…" she began saying as she started to count on her fingers "… you took too long to wake me up, letting that Blondie in there sleep with you already, and for that remark in the last life" she finished saying with a huff as she crossed her arms and turned her head away.

"It took so long because I figured you deserved it because of what you did…" he responded as he glared at her some more "… don't think I have forgotten that you told our kid to take my code so you could do what you wanted. I wasn't insulting you, it was just an observation witch."

"I don't care…" C.C. said "… you don't tell a women that you think she is looking fatter. I bet you if it was Nunnally or Kallen you would have kept your mouth shut" she accused him of playing favorites again.

"Fine..." he said not even bothering to dignify her with a response to her accusations "… I'll keep it to myself next time then. And I am not sleeping with Milly… yet. As you can see she and I are still in our childhood and it will be a while before that is even considered."

"I don't care she's in your room and sleeping on the bed while I've been stuck in here on this little cot by myself. How ungentlemanly of you Lelouch."

"Shut it witch…" he retorted back at her "… it's not like I had any choice in the matter. You know what she's like. Once she decides to do something, it's near impossible to change her mind."

"Excuses, excuses…" his witch said with a wave of her hand as she sat back onto her cot which it seemed that she didn't mind as much as she had let on "… you just make sure to get her out by tomorrow because I don't feel like sharing just yet."

"I can't, she has decided to take it upon herself to be my caretaker until Nunnally can come home from the hospital in a few days and even then knowing her she will try to come up with another reason to stay and if not her then probably that old geezer of a grandfather of hers will…" he said as he walked to the door to go to sleep and let his witch get acquainted with the new timeline that they were in now "… I will try to keep her out of the room tomorrow though, and into another room if that helps any, just remember to stay out of sight from anyone so that Charles and his lot don't know that you're here. I'm also going to need you to introduce yourself to Cornelia in your special way so that she doesn't think that I'm making up what I already told her."

"Whatever you say my little emperor, just make sure that someone brings me up my pizza or I will start pestering you until you do."

"I know, don't worry about it."

"Don't you want your geass back before you go?" she asked him with a smirk on her face.

"I already got it while you were taking your trip down memory lane" he said as he turned his head to the left to look at her with a devilish smirk and let the power of the kings flash brightly in his eye before reigning it in again so as not to affect anyone by accident.

"Clever boy…" C.C. complimented him as she went make to eating the pizza that he had brought in there when the old her didn't notice it "… just remember to be careful with it boya."

"I know that. Good night…" Lelouch said her real name to her "… my witch."

"Good night Lelouch, my warlock." She responded in kind.

Lelouch then closed the door to the closet and stood there by the door as he reminded himself that C.C. was one of the few people that knew what the real him was like.

He then noticed movement on the bed and looked over to see a sleepy eyed 11 years old Milly Ashford looking for him on the bed.

"Lelouch? Where are you?" she asked sleepily asked she sat up on the bed with the shirt that she had taken from him as her nightgown ruffled and a few buttons on the top undone.

"Over here Milly…" he said as he walked over to the bed "… I went to get some water downstairs."

"Well come back to back to bed. It's cold without you in here." She pouted as she yawned and started to pull him onto the bed. "What kept you up anyways?"

"Just thinking of all the things that need to be taken care of and such" he said as he got comfortable in the bed and Milly embracing him from his side.

He laid there for a while simply enjoying the embrace from the free spirited Ashford and thinking of all the things that were yet to come. As the night wore one the only light in the room was an ominous red one that originated from the young prince's eye and he said one final thing with a smile on his face that would make a lesser man run in fear

"I can't wait for all the fun that I'm going to have."

**A/N: well there's chapter five for you all lovely people.**

**Sorry it took so long to update but real life kept getting in the way. Hopefully I will be able to get the next chapter out faster than this one. On a brighter note I was able to get beta readers starting with this chapter so hip-hip hurray. **

**Let's give a warm welcome to our new beta readers MM Browsing, Ruby125 and Debye who will hopefully be able to say something next time.**

**I would like to thank all of you supportive people who took the time to review my story and say that I will do my best to improve the quality and to get the next chapter out as soon as I can. Now to answer some reviews.**

**To ****Jarjaxle and CarlJohnson95: Thanks for the reviews but I'm not adding Dorthea Earnest to the harem because I see her more of supporting Charles than Lelouch but that's just me.**

**To The Black Ranger: if you don't like it don't read. This is just me writing what I want and sharing it with you guys. Just skips parts that involve her if you want. Thanks for the review though.**

**To Tierhawke: the reason why Cornelia and the others would react to Lelouch would be that they are subconsciously reacting to him when he is forcefully pressing his will to them. They might not get why they are reacting to him but their more basic instincts are for them. Don't really know how to explain it, sorry if I made it worse for anybody. Thanks for your review though. It gave me more ideas to work on for later.**

**To the rest of you and your supportive reviews thank you for taking the time to do so.**

**Hopefully I can get some more after this so I can improve on the story. **

**I will also be accepting OC's to replace the scientists on Schneizel's side and an ace pilot to oppose Lelouch like suzaku did in the show.**

**I know a lot of you are waiting for the confrontation between Lelouch and the Emperor so let me be the one to tell you that that will happen… **

**(Drum roll)**

**(*people around author ready with blunt objects*)**

… **next chapter (*people cheer and put away their blunt objects that were going to be used on the author of this story*)**

***gulp* definitely next chapter, so don't worry**

**With that till next time! **

**Read & Review!**

**Posted: 6/3/13**


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